Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack him

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KK
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PostTelegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack him
by KK » Fri Apr 05, 2013 11:05 pm

Independent wrote:Axed from Daily Telegraph website after just two days: Kelvin MacKenzie still can't handle 'The Truth'

Former Sun editor loses online column after Hillsborough backlash

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Kelvin MacKenzie's apparent new career as star columnist on the Daily Telegraph website is over inside two days.

Sources at the paper said the former editor of The Sun would not continue to write for the broadsheet’s website after a storm of reaction to his opening salvo, which attracted around 800 comments following publication on Thursday.

The right-wing polemicist carries a lot of baggage, particularly in relation to the Hillsborough football disaster. For years he refused to apologise for The Sun’s notorious front page headline, “The Truth”, blaming Liverpool supporters for the deaths of 96 of their fellow fans.

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MacKenzie’s arrival had been greeted with excitement on Fleet Street. The trade magazine Press Gazette said his arrival at Telegraph Media Group “underlined its investment in online ahead of the launch of its metered paywall”. The group is planning to charge regular users for online access and is looking to emphasise the value of its website content.

The Telegraph gave the MacKenzie column a front page fanfare online. “In the first of a new weekly column for Telegraph.co.uk, Kelvin MacKenzie has plans for the future of our classrooms, Masterchef and even some timely advice for student investors”, it said.

Since editing The Sun he has had a successful and lucrative career in the media, and has enjoyed high-profile roles in television punditry and in writing newspaper columns.

But the findings of the recent Hillsborough inquiry, which prompted MacKenzie to make “profound apologies”, have made him the subject of renewed anger.

The Telegraph website was deluged with negative comments about the former tabloid editor, and references to the publication having “dumbed down” and turned itself into “fish and chip paper”. Most of the criticisms were not aimed at the content of the column. Instead, the commentary was focused on the mere presence of MacKenzie’s byline on the website of a quality newspaper. “This ghastly little man”, was one of the kinder comments.

“It beggars belief they would even consider the man,” Margaret Aspinall, chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, told the Liverpool Echo.

“The timing with the upcoming anniversary was an absolute disgrace.”

The Telegraph’s management were sufficiently concerned by the level of vitriol, and the number of references to not subscribing to the new service, to order that Mackenzie should not write for the site again.

The Telegraph will be anxious that its writers do not regard MacKenzie’s disappearance from the site as evidence that all their jobs are vulnerable to a backlash of online criticism. The paper recently stood by controversial writer James Delingpole after he apologised for crude sexual comments made about the journalist Suzanne Moore, despite a campaign for Delingpole to be sacked.

It is understood that despite the star billing this week, MacKenzie was not considered suitable for writing in the print edition of the Telegraph and that he did not have a formal contract.

But the sacking will have come as a surprise to Mackenzie himself. He had littered his 1,800 words of prose with requests for interaction, asking readers to contact him on his new Telegraph email address. Sadly for him those responses, if publishable, no longer have an outlet.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media ... 62591.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/9969 ... lower.html

Epic misjudgement there then. I thought he was still writing for the Daily Mail.

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Alvin Flummux
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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by Alvin Flummux » Fri Apr 05, 2013 11:07 pm

His face looks like it's missing something... a fist, maybe? A knife? A bullet hole?

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Finiarél
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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by Finiarél » Fri Apr 05, 2013 11:10 pm

Good.
banana split.

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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by Doug » Fri Apr 05, 2013 11:11 pm

Alvin Flummux wrote:His face looks like it's missing something... a fist, maybe? A knife? A bullet hole?


All of the above, really can't stand the man.

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Shadow
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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by Shadow » Fri Apr 05, 2013 11:24 pm

It's a disgrace that this twat still gets work.

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Nibble
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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by Nibble » Fri Apr 05, 2013 11:29 pm

Guy's a strawberry floating reptile, along with all the other "this changes nothing" Hillsborough apologist banana splits. Hope he dies a long painful death starting now.

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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by Tineash » Fri Apr 05, 2013 11:47 pm

Alvin Flummux wrote:His face looks like it's missing something... a fist, maybe? A knife? A bullet hole?


Backpfeifengesicht - "A face in need of a punch".

"exceptionally annoying" - TheTurnipKing
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Alvin Flummux
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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by Alvin Flummux » Fri Apr 05, 2013 11:51 pm

I'd laugh if the Telegraph's head honchos only hired him because they wanted the satisfaction of getting to fire him.

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No:1 Final Fantasy Fan
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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by No:1 Final Fantasy Fan » Sat Apr 06, 2013 12:25 am

Kelvin MacKenzie is an ignorant piece of scum

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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by bear » Sat Apr 06, 2013 12:28 am

What did he apologise for? I certainly don't remember an apology anything like what was necessary considering the lies he printed and how long to held onto them after the Taylor report was published. He even had the nerve to try and act like a victim when he wrote his reaction piece for The Spectator when the 2012 Hillsborough report was published. No media outlet should have anything to do with the banana split.

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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by Phatman » Sat Apr 06, 2013 10:55 am

Well deserved. MacKenzie is remorseless scumbag of no value. A genuinely talentless bottom-feeder, an exploiter and above all else a shameless liar to his very core. May he live out the rest of his days in complete misery.

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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by SEP » Sat Apr 06, 2013 4:38 pm

Phatman wrote:Well deserved. MacKenzie is remorseless scumbag of no value. A genuinely talentless bottom-feeder, an exploiter and above all else a shameless liar to his very core. May he live out the rest of his days in complete misery.


Or he could go into politics. He'd fit right in.

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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by Scotticus Erroticus » Sun Apr 07, 2013 3:48 pm

What were the Telegraph thinking? :? McKenzie is filth, wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire. He should be in prison.

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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by Ario » Sun Apr 07, 2013 4:57 pm

Finiarél wrote:Good.
banana split.

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Superking
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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by Superking » Sun Apr 07, 2013 6:14 pm

The fact the Telegraph even considered hiring him suggests their credibility is plummeting to tabloidesque levels.

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Squinty
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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by Squinty » Sun Apr 07, 2013 6:48 pm

Well, that's the best news I've heard in a while.

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~Earl Grey~
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PostRe: Telegraph.co.uk hires Kelvin MacKenzie...and then sack h
by ~Earl Grey~ » Sun Apr 07, 2013 7:54 pm

I remember I sent him an outraged email a few years ago. I can't remember what it was over, but it must have really pissed me off. So... good.


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