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My heart breaks at this.


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Dear Express newspapers,

 

I am writing to you to protest the article you posted on behalf of your employee, Colin Mafham, on the Express's LFC online page.  The level of inaccuracy and misrepresentation of past events would appear to suggest some level of agenda-driven malice.

 

It is shocking that it managed to pass your editorial process. Although this article was taken down on line, why did it get to that point in the first instance? Did your Sports Editor review this article and believe it was accurate? If so, that is a worrying level of incompetence, and would suggest failures in your quality control process.

 

I attach a link here that counters Mafham's fallacious article:

 


 

Would you please consider balancing Mafham's deceptive narrative with the right-to-reply? The Anfield Wrap has acclaimed journalists. How about providing them with the same platform you provided to your hateful troll of an employee?

 

Mafham perpetuates the continued hatred and baiting by some people that the horrific attack on Sean Cox was a case of Liverpool fans receiving some sort of 'rightful retribution' for (Mafham's fabricated) past wrongs. Apparently, the narrative runs that Roma fans attacked Liverpool fans because of the disgraceful treatment of the Manchester City bus a few weeks ago. Mafham conveniently fails to mention the unprovoked attacks by Roma supporters on Liverpool fans in 1984 (and their subsequent attacks on supporters of clubs such as Chelsea, Tottenham and Middlesborough), because that would undermine his agenda.

 

According to Mafham, any counter to his spurious argument is proof of our 'victims' mentality (as someone involved in football, Mafham would be well aware of the 'Always the victims' chant). Was he inviting trolls, and more of his type of hatred, with his abhorrent click-bait claims? Please ask him.

 

Liverpool Football Club and its fans (especially Mr Cox and his family) deserve an apology from the Express, and your Sports Editor. I doubt Mafham would ever consider doing this, so I ask that you act with the integrity Mafham evidently lacks. 

 

I would also suggest the Express reconsiders its relationship with Mafham. Are you happy to allow him to continue his agenda against my club and fellow supporters? An agenda that probably was formed during his time with a disgusting newspaper that was proved to have lied about fans at Hillsborough. Are you happy to pay him whilst he gleefully persists with his prejudices?

 

Thank you.

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He will be on a contract to write articles for them in return for payment. It is quite common place.

 

Thing is I saw that original article and it already had loads of anti Liverpool comments about Hillsbrough victims getting English clubs banned etc etc. Mafham knew he was stirring shit with it and got the response he wanted. It is a disgrace the Express every published it.

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Tim Fenton skewers the 'apology':

 

Liverpool Smear - Express Deception
 
Earlier this week, Liverpool FC hosted AS Roma at Anfield in the first leg of a Champions’ League semi-final, winning the tie 5-2 and setting up an intriguing second leg at the Stadio Olimpico. Sadly, the match was marred by some Roma fans indulging in outright thuggery outside the ground, as a result of which one Liverpool fan is now in hospital with a serious head injury. Police have charged two Italian men over the disturbance.
 
That much was bad enough, but then came a column in the Express which asserted “No one is suggesting that the violence that erupted on Tuesday night was solely the fault of Liverpool fans … But there are suggestions that the reputation of Liverpool supporters had gone before them and Roman yobs had simply decided to get in first, and with such awful consequences. It’s not right, but it does again highlight a common denominator”.
 
The author of the piece, Colin Mafham, went on to ask “Why does trouble seem to follow them like bees round a honey pot?” and, just in case he hadn’t put the boot in enough, added “That’s why I urge Liverpool Football Club to condemn, rather than giving succour to excuses like ‘it’s society’s problem’ and ‘all the world’s against us’”.
 
Now has come the apology from the Express, which, as the Liverpool Echo has told, has conceded “Yesterday a comment piece by a freelance journalist entitled 'Liverpool must take serious action after Roma violence or risk further trouble' was published on this website. This article was ill-informed and wrong. It did not, in any way, reflect the views of the Express. It should never have been written and was very quickly removed”.
 
And, as Jon Stewart might have said, two things here. One, the idea that this was just the work of some freelance loose cannon untutored in the ways of the Express is total crap. As both Journalisted and LinkedIn confirm, Colin Mafham may technically be a freelance, but he has worked for the Express for more than eight years. He is effectively their main man for top flight football opinion pieces. And it gets worse.
 
And Two, the Express was in the most part responsible for Mafham’s column getting through - because during the reign of Richard “Dirty” Desmond, the paper did away with sub-editors and so hacks effectively self-published, with lawyers checking out the result. But a legal eagle would not have pulled the offending article, as it was not personally defamatory of anyone, and in any case it was an opinion piece. No subs, no backstop.
 
Then there is a Three: Colin Mafham, before he arrived at the Express, was a night editor at the Murdoch Sun. That’s the same Murdoch Sun that viciously and unrepentantly smeared the memories of the 96 fans who died as a result of the Hillsborough stadium disaster in 1989. The same Murdoch Sun so long reigned over by the disgraced and deeply unpleasant Kelvin McFilth. What the Express isn’t telling you.
 
The Express’ hand-wringing is a master class in deception. Their removal of sub-editors set up the possibility of a hack going rogue and getting his copy through. By taking on someone from the Sun, they made that possibility a likelihood. And by letting Colin Mafham have a free rein for more than eight years, they turned the likelihood into a racing certainty. Their lame excuses are not worth a cent.
 
For 29 years, the refrain has been “Don’t buy the Sun”. Now the Express is in there too.
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Dear Express newspapers,
 
I am writing to you to protest the article you posted on behalf of your employee, Colin Mafham, on the Express's LFC online page.  The level of inaccuracy and misrepresentation of past events would appear to suggest some level of agenda-driven malice.
 
It is shocking that it managed to pass your editorial process. Although this article was taken down on line, why did it get to that point in the first instance? Did your Sports Editor review this article and believe it was accurate? If so, that is a worrying level of incompetence, and would suggest failures in your quality control process.
 
I attach a link here that counters Mafham's fallacious article:
 
 
Would you please consider balancing Mafham's deceptive narrative with the right-to-reply? The Anfield Wrap has acclaimed journalists. How about providing them with the same platform you provided to your hateful troll of an employee?
 
Mafham perpetuates the continued hatred and baiting by some people that the horrific attack on Sean Cox was a case of Liverpool fans receiving some sort of 'rightful retribution' for (Mafham's fabricated) past wrongs. Apparently, the narrative runs that Roma fans attacked Liverpool fans because of the disgraceful treatment of the Manchester City bus a few weeks ago. Mafham conveniently fails to mention the unprovoked attacks by Roma supporters on Liverpool fans in 1984 (and their subsequent attacks on supporters of clubs such as Chelsea, Tottenham and Middlesborough), because that would undermine his agenda.
 
According to Mafham, any counter to his spurious argument is proof of our 'victims' mentality (as someone involved in football, Mafham would be well aware of the 'Always the victims' chant). Was he inviting trolls, and more of his type of hatred, with his abhorrent click-bait claims? Please ask him.
 
Liverpool Football Club and its fans (especially Mr Cox and his family) deserve an apology from the Express, and your Sports Editor. I doubt Mafham would ever consider doing this, so I ask that you act with the integrity Mafham evidently lacks. 
 
I would also suggest the Express reconsiders its relationship with Mafham. Are you happy to allow him to continue his agenda against my club and fellow supporters? An agenda that probably was formed during his time with a disgusting newspaper that was proved to have lied about fans at Hillsborough. Are you happy to pay him whilst he gleefully persists with his prejudices?
 
Thank you.

 

 

Thank you.

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