Rogan Rat strikes again

[Guest Ulysses Everett McGill]

I'd fucking love to destroy this pompous twat, and the HFSG don't come out of this in the greatest light either, but then again, they've always been a bit toothless.

 

Someone should really get into Luke Traynor about this as well, both sides of the story an that

 

Liverpool lecturer Rogan Taylor's Hillsborough fee 'mistake' - Liverpool Echo.co.uk

 

A LIVERPOOL University lecturer accused of cashing in on Hillsborough today won the backing of families of the victims.

 

Professor Rogan Taylor was criticised in a Sunday newspaper which claimed he demanded £450 to speak to a Danish journalist about the 20th anniversary of the disaster.

 

An email from the lecturer to a Scandinavian TV company reportedly said:

 

“We can arrange the actual time nearer the day...

“I will require a fee of 500 (in euros!) All the best, Rogan.”

 

But today the Hillsborough Family Support Group (HFSG) said they had “every confidence” in Professor Taylor’s integrity.

 

They also highlighted the thousands of pounds donated to the organisation from the sale of his Hillsborough book.

 

The HSFG met the lecturer at Anfield yesterday where they “recognised the valuable work he has done over the 20 years”.

 

Prof Taylor spoke of his “hurt and anger” after the story but conceded: “Let me first hold my hands up. It was a thoughtless email to send and I am sorry for it.”

 

The professor, who heads Liverpool University’s Football Industry Group said: “My request for a fee which a TV company like this would be very unlikely to pay was really another way of saying 'No, thanks' – setting the hurdle so high I knew they wouldn’t leap over it.

 

“And for what ‘great sin’ am I effectively labelled a ‘Profit of Death’ (headlines in the Sunday Express)?

 

“Because I asked to be paid to do my professional job for a foreign TV company that thought it could make some money by making a film about Hillsborough?

 

“The hypocrisy is miles deep.”

 

April marks the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy when 96 Liverpool fans lost their lives on the Leppings Lane terrace in Sheffield.

 

 

 

Rogan Taylor's statement

This Sunday I was the subject of a attack through the Sunday Express about asking for payment to work on a film about Hillsborough being made by a Danish TV production company.

 

Under a headline, ‘The Profit of Death’, the article included quotations from two people bereaved at Hillsborough who were understandably upset to get a phone call from a journalist asking them what they think about people ‘profiting from Hillsborough’. The story was the result of an email I sent to the Danish company which they leaked in order to damage me.

 

Let me first hold my hands up – it was a thoughtless email to send, and I am sorry for it.

 

 

But let me explain:

I’d received a request to contribute to the Danish programme and I was really too busy to accommodate them on the day they proposed. But when you make most of your living as a ‘writer and broadcaster’ as I do (I’m not a professor in a university – as wrongly stated in the article – I work part-time in one as a lecturer), you don’t like to just baldly say, No. But that’s what I should have done. Instead, I wrote, “I've got two days of interviews…. but I should be able to fit you in sometime on those days.”

 

 

My request for a fee which a TV company like this would be very unlikely to pay was really another way of saying, 'No, thanks' – setting the hurdle so high I knew they wouldn’t leap over it. Maybe the Danish journalist involved, Lars Mathiasen, didn’t realise that - or maybe he did? Whatever, was his nose so desperately out of joint, that he decided the best stick to beat me with was the Hillsborough families? It certainly looks like that. He knew what would happen when he leaked that email.

 

And for what ‘great sin’ am I effectively labelled a ‘Profit of Death’? Because I asked to be paid to do my professional job for a foreign TV company that thought it could make some money by making a film about Hillsborough? The hypocrisy is miles deep. Or are they all working for nothing and any profits they make will be passed straight back to the Hillsborough families?

 

The facts are these: I’ve never asked for payment for my part in over two dozen radio & TV documentaries about Hillsborough made in UK over the past twenty years - and I took a year out of my professional life to write the 'Day of the Hillsborough Disaster' book, with 100% of the royalties going directly to the Hillsborough Families Support Group forever. That is my personal and professional tribute to those who suffered in the worst football disaster in British history. In this anniversary year, I am currently working on three Hillsborough projects for the media in UK – none of which involve any payment at all.

 

Some of the people who are closest to this tragedy, officially represented by the Hillsborough Families Support Group, gave me a unanimous vote of confidence, at their meeting at Anfield when I represented myself to them on the same day as the publication of this story. I am very proud to say that they later formally expressed in a public statement their support for me and their "complete confidence in my integrity”.

 

Nothing could mean more to me right now than this reassurance.

 

The sad birthplace of this story's publication lies in a pathetic desire by one journalist (who presumably is getting paid to make a programme about Hillsborough) to get revenge on another, fellow journalist, just because I didn’t leap at the chance to work for nothing at a very busy time. So, to get at me, he triggered a story in a tabloid that would be bound to hurt the people most vulnerable. Collateral damage. As the Families say, they’ve seen and felt it all before.

 

You will easily imagine how hurt and angry I was when I read the utterly tasteless headline, ‘The Profit of Death’ next to my photograph. But for me, the very worst aspect of it was to see the Hillsborough families used and abused (once again) in this way. It is absolutely contemptible to set in train a story which is bound to rub a sharp stick into the living wounds of people who have suffered such terrible loss and massive injustice for twenty years – and all just to gain petty revenge on someone who doesn’t really want to take part in your TV documentary…….

 

 

Statement from the Hillsborough Family Support Group

 

 

The HFSG is the official body that represents the majority of families bereaved by the Hillsborough Football disaster on 15th April 1989. It has always been recognised for the past nearly 20 years as the official channel for all press comment from those families. That remains the case today – hence this statement.

 

 

We take great objection at the article published today in the Sunday Express Newspaper which attempts to smear the reputation of Dr Rogan Taylor – allegedly in our name.

 

No contact with this group has been made by the said tabloid prior to publication and a copy of this statement is being sent to the Editor registering our total disbelief at such poor journalistic standards, and demanding the right of reply.

 

 

In the light of this article we invited Dr Taylor to address a full family meeting, which was co-incidentally being held at Anfield today. Following that discussion it was unanimously agreed by the families (in Dr Taylor’s absence) that we should publicly recognise the valuable work that he has done over the 20years and to make it absolutely clear we have complete confidence in his integrity.

 

 

We also wish to reiterate that Rogan has constantly worked to focus attention on all matters relating to Hillsborough, including the suffering and injustice the Families have received. He enjoys our respect for his intellect, strong views and both advocacy and journalistic skills – even though we disagree on some points of policy.

 

 

Regarding the charge of ‘profiteering’ from Hillsborough, we confirm that to-date the HFSG group has received many thousands of pounds for our cause as a direct result of Dr Taylor donating the entire royalties from the sale of his Hillsborough book.

 

 

The idea of him ‘profiting’ from the Hillsborough tragedy is clearly ludicrous and highly offensive - to us as much as to Dr Taylor. We consider him a hero not a villain.

 

 

Until we receive a satisfactory explanation from the Editor we believe we are perfectly entitled to conclude that this is again a cheap attempt by a tabloid newspaper to cause dissent at and within Liverpool – regardless of the pain it causes the families at this sensitive time.

Trevor Hicks – President HFSG.

[INTORRESTING]

I think he is terrible and i think the share scheme should have appointed a media savvy person to deal with things. Some of his radio interviews were cringeworthy and not a good advert for his cause.

[ScottyT]

Trevor Hicks has a point. Seems a bit cheap to make a story out of this, especially given the subject matter.

[Barrington Womble]

hahaha, only Rogan could spin this as I'm being victimised. He's a man who's made a career out of the 96, how he can somehow try to portray himself as some sort of Mother Theresa is astounding.

[Barrington Womble]

Trevor Hicks has a point. Seems a bit cheap to make a story out of this, especially given the subject matter.

 

I'm glad they did, why shouldn't he be exposed?

[JER]

He's as bad as Phil Neal demanding £500 to speak to a journalist about Heysel.

[JER]

hahaha, only Rogan could spin this as I'm being victimised. He's a man who's made a career out of the 96, how he can somehow try to portray himself as some sort of Mother Theresa is astounding.

 

Exactly - if he didn't agree with the motives of the TV company a simple NO would have done

[Dan Vito Corleone]

Fucking liar.

[Guest Ulysses Everett McGill]

hahaha, only Rogan could spin this as I'm being victimised. He's a man who's made a career out of the 96, how he can somehow try to portray himself as some sort of Mother Theresa is astounding.

 

 

Remember when the pompous twat turned up at the second SOS meeting uninvited with a Norweigan TV crew in tow?

 

Who's the hypocrite now you twat?

[ScottyT]

I'm glad they did, why shouldn't he be exposed?

 

Exposing someone for using Hillsborough for their own gain, while getting a jucy story out of it. Just smacks of double standards and a personal vendetta.

[Barrington Womble]

Remember when the pompous twat turned up at the second SOS meeting uninvited with a Norweigan TV crew in tow?

 

Who's the hypocrite now you twat?

 

I do, the little twat. And walking off the stage after he'd done his advert. Cunt.

[Barrington Womble]

Exposing someone for using Hillsborough for their own gain, while getting a jucy story out of it. Just smacks of double standards and a personal vendetta.

 

This is a man who is running an organisation called ShareLiverpool who's single aim is to take control of Liverpool FC. If you can't see him attempting to profiteer from Hillsborough as being news worthy and it should somehow be covered up, what would you deem as news worthy? If, as has been pointed out earlier, he had concerns about the motives of the Danish TV company, a simple "no I'm busy" surely would have sufficed? The man is a slime ball and the more reds that know it the better.

[Guest Ulysses Everett McGill]

This is a man who is running an organisation called ShareLiverpool who's single aim is to take control of Liverpool FC. If you can't see him attempting to profiteer from Hillsborough as being news worthy and it should somehow be covered up, what would you deem as news worthy? If, as has been pointed out earlier, he had concerns about the motives of the Danish TV company, a simple "no I'm busy" surely would have sufficed? The man is a slime ball and the more reds that know it the better.

 

After all, it's not as if he isn't used to dealing with Scandinavian TV production crews is it?

 

Having used one for his own ends last year when gatecrashing SOS events.

[Strontium]

Not that I want to defend Rogan Taylor, but he has a point that unless the journalist(s) who approached him were working free of charge, it's definitely a case of stones and glass houses.

[Antynwa]

The man is a cunt.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

Disgrace.

[Guest Ulysses Everett McGill]

Not that I want to defend Rogan Taylor, but he has a point that unless the journalist(s) who approached him were working free of charge, it's definitely a case of stones and glass houses.

 

Whether they did or they didn't, it's not the point, the people involved in producing the programme don't profess to be what Taylor does.

 

The fact that someone on here has made a conscious effort to educate people in a foreign country about Hillsborough should only be applauded.

 

But for Rogan to ask for payment is disgrace

 

You are talking about a man has made his career off the back of the two blackest days in our history, and it looks like, yet again, he is happy to make a fast buck on the back of our own dead.

[drewy]

He wanted to make a few quid, if you can't see that you're either daft or stupid. A couple of words would have sufficed 'No thanks I'm too busy'.

 

He's blatantly a horrible individual.

[Antynwa]

What did Rogan actually have to do?

 

Write a few lines?

 

Say a few sentences?

 

Fly over to Scandinavia?

[robslappa]

Whether they did or they didn't, it's not the point.

 

The fact that someone on here has made a conscious effort to educate people in a foreign country about Hillborough should only be applauded.

 

But for Rogan to ask for payment is disgrace

 

You are talking about a man has made his career off the back of the two blackest days in our history, and it looks like, yet again, he is happy to make a fast buck on the back of our own dead.

 

Well said Andy.

 

How can €500 be setting the bar too high? The man is a lying snake and has been caught out.

[Menc]

His statement's all over the place. At the top he claims he only asked for a fee to put them off, at the bottom he's saying that this Danish journalist is in a nark "just because I didn’t leap at the chance to work for nothing at a very busy time".

 

He was clearly negotiating. Didn't really want to do it, but was prepared to if they made it worth his while.

[Dan Vito Corleone]

We must all try and expose this fraud for what he really is.

[kopitegaz]

I prefered him when he used to compare the Kop to a painting by hieronymus bosch (only slightly preferred, mind).

[Soleilrouge]

Apart from being a scum bag, if Rogan Taylor got control of this club we would be tottenham hotspur within two years

[PaulMcC]

I do, the little twat. And walking off the stage after he'd done his advert. Cunt.

 

What happened there?