Ruffneck Scarves pulls all sponsorship from Steven Cohen and WSD.
New York, Thursday, 18th June, 2009 - The LFCNY is pleased to announce that another major advertiser has pulled its advertising from Steven Cohen’s show World Soccer Daily. Ruffneck Scarves a mainstay of WSD and Fox Football Fone In has ended its sponsorship with immediate effect.
Jeff McIntyre of Ruffneck Scarves spoke of shoddy dealings by Steven Cohen throughout the LFCNY boycott campaign. Jeff says, that amongst other things, “Steven Cohen made calls into one of our strategic partners to try to sabotage our deal, because we voiced our displeasure with what had transpired as a result of his negative comments regarding Hillsborough.” And this was before Ruffneck Scarves had made any decision to join the LFCNY boycott.
Conor Brennan, VP of LFCNY and the Co-ordinator of the LFCNY campaign against Steven Cohen, said that he had been in discussions with Jeff McIntyre for quite some time. “Early on, we recognized that Ruffneck Scarves was genuinely trying to do the right thing, trying to protect its business and employees and honor its advertising contracts, while being horrified and outraged by Steven Cohen’s hateful lies and and smears against the 96, Hillsborough and Liverpool fans worldwide.” The LFCNY removed Ruffneck Scarves from the boycott list while discussions were continuing.
But Steven Cohen’s lies and blatant disregard for a cornerstone sponsor continued. Ruffneck invested in hundreds of custom World Soccer Daily scarves as part of a promotional giveaway to be executed at Fado pubs during Champions League viewings with World Soccer Daily. When Fado pubs pulled its sponsorship from WSD, Cohen’s answer to Ruffneck about alternatives for promotion and return of merchandise was essentially, “tough!” Again, Ruffneck Scarves were not part of the LFCNY boycott at this time.
Every time Steven Cohen discussed Hillsborough and repeated his lies, Ruffneck Scarves was deluged by emails of outrage and not only from Liverpool fans. Basically, Ruffneck’s continued collaboration with Steven Cohen became toxic to its survival.
Several other companies have discovered that allowing its name to be associated with a merchant of hate such as Steven Cohen has also proved toxic to them. Steven Cohen lies and everyone gets hurt - Liverpool fans, the families of the 96 dead, his sponsors. Jeff McIntyre puts the Hillsborough tragedy into some perspective when he says, “the Hillsborough tragedy was just that, a tragedy, and should not be used in a public forum to "blame. Were the residents of Indonesia asked to ‘share the blame’ for the tsunami?”
Conor Brennan says that the boycott will continue and that any new sponsors who decide that they want to give their money to Steven Cohen to allow him to continue with his lies and hate will be contacted, letting them know how their money is being spent and what is being said in their name. “Just because we have been quiet publicly recently does not mean that the campaign has gone away. We have been in very serious discussions with other sponsors and the next week will see more of them joining the boycott against the lies and hate of Steven Cohen”, says Brennan, “Ruffneck Scarves was an example of how we are conducting this campaign - with respect and understanding for the sponsors, while being very firm in our position, continuing our discussions until we achieved our objective.”
The Hillsborough Justice Campaign condemns Steve Cohen, supports LFCNY and the North American Branches in boycott campaign.
New York, Friday, 22nd May 2009 - The Hillsborough Justice Campaign (HJC) today released a statement condemning Steve Cohen for his lies and support the boycott of his sponsors organized by the LFCNY and the North American Branches of Liverpool supporters. The HJC says that Steve Cohen's lies are the result of an "ignorance borne out of prejudice" and the LFCNY absolutely concurs. Throughout this campaign to get hate merchant Steve Cohen off the air, the consistent position of the LFCNY has been that he has been knowingly telling lies to cause hurt, anguish and pain, all in the name of noterity and ratings. The simple fact is that Steve Cohen knowingly lies and now more and more people are seeing the truth in that statement.
Yesterday, Liverpool Football Club broke with tradition and to condemn Cohen and today the HJC do the same, "whilst we do not normally divert our valuable time and energy to respond to scurrilous comments in relation to Hillsborough, in this instance we make an exception". The LFCNY are very pleased to have the support of the HJC and will continue in its campaign to get Steve Cohen off the air. The HJC was specific in its support for the campaign, "we support the LFCNY and all Liverpool fans in the U.S. who have called for a boycott of advertisers associated with Mr Cohen", and we take heart from these statements. The campaign against a merchant of hate, Steve Cohen will continue and the LFCNY and all the North American Branches are congratulate the HJC on its stance.
This story has broken in the UK and the LFCNY have contacted many different organizations and companies across the length and breadth of Britian. Expect more statements like those of Liverpool Football Club and the HJC to follow in coming days.
This campaign answers for the 96 because they cannot. They are dead. As long as Steve Cohen has a broadcasting pulpit to promote hate and lies, this campaign will not rest. We encourage everyone to join our boycott of the sponsors of Steve Cohen.
Jack The Lad
Gary Allen
sales@jackthelad.us and garyah63@msn.com
Press Display
Alex Kroogman
akroogman@newspaperdirect.com
PSG Sports
Nick Roberts
nickr@psgsports.com
Sporting Glory
Michael Coyle
michael.coyle@lawdit.co.uk
The Fix
Declan Hill
declanhill2002@yahoo.com
VIP Communications
customerservice@joinvip.com
21st May 2009 The Hillsborough Justice Campaign unequivocally condemns the comments made by broadcaster Steve Cohen in relation to both the Hillsborough disaster and the ongoing justice campaign.
The cause of the Hillsborough Disaster was the breakdown of police control (see Interim Report of Lord Justice Taylor). To suggest otherwise is in direct contradiction to the facts and indicates an ignorance borne out of prejudice.
Moreover, Mr Cohen’s comments regarding the Hillsborough Justice Campaign are slanderous and defame the good name of the organisation.
Whilst we do not normally divert our valuable time and energy to respond to scurrilous comments in relation to Hillsborough, in this instance we make an exception. We support the LFCNY and all Liverpool fans in the U.S. who have called for a boycott of advertisers associated with Mr Cohen.
Finally, we would like to draw Mr Cohen’s attention to our website: www.contrast.org/hillsborough. If his views remain unchanged after reading the facts as outlined in the history section then it could reasonably be argued that his views on Hillsborough are pathological.
K.Derbyshire (Chair)
The Steve Cohen boycott: LFCNY applauds Anfield statement
New York, Thursday 21st May 2009 - Today, Steve Cohen found himself condemned by Liverpool Football Club for his scurrilious lies and hatred peddled against Liverpool fans and the 96 dead at Hillsborough. In many respects, this was an unusal move by the Club as Liverpool usually prefers to let the families speak on Hillsborough-related matters. But when you are Steve Cohen, a merchant of hate who peddles lies and pain, people will queue up to condemn you.
The LFCNY is very pleased that Anfield has broken with tradition and condemned Cohen for his vile utterings. The story of Cohen's spewed hatred has broken this week in the UK and we have good reason to believe that Liverpool's statement of against Cohen and his outright lies will not be the last.
The campaign run by the LFCNY and all the North American Branches will continued unabated until Steve Cohen no longer has any pulpit from which to insult, lie and cause pain for no other reason than noterity and ratings. We want him gone from Fox and Sirius/XM. Gone. Off the air.
Steve Cohen exercised his right of free speech in lying about the 96, Hillsborough and Liverpool fans. Peddling hate for ratings he has caused tremendous pain. Liverpool Football Club exercised its right of free expression today in condemning Steve Cohen and the LFCNY and all the North American branches will exercise their free speech rights in continuing to tell everyone, every sponsor, every network, that Steve Cohen lies and laughs about his lying.
The LFCNY unreservedly applauds Liverpool Football Club for its support.
The Steve Cohen boycott continues; Celtic Supporters' Clubs (North America) join; LFCNY asks 'what apology'?
Steve Cohen has printed a statement on his website today, May 18th 2009, which he says is an apology. The LFCNY completely reject his interpretation of that word and the attempts at the same within.
It should be noted that there are some words missing. In no particular order, those words are, '96', 'dead', 'Hillsborough' and 'Liverpool'. There are others, but it's not for us to either write Steve Cohen's apology nor help him understand what a real apology looks like. In a recent interview, the LFCNY has described Cohen's previous 'apologies' - yes, this is far from him first foray in this territory - as "snivelling, mealy-mouthed, forced and qualified." We apologize that we forgot 'disingenuous', also.
In no shape manner or form does the statement Steve Cohen released today constitute an apology. It is nothing more than an attempt to save the crumbling career of someone who has consistently lied about the events at Hillsborough, Liverpool fans and 96 dead Liverpool fans.
At no time and in no manner has Steve Cohen attempted to engage any Liverpool fans or fans group seriously. He has however, bragged about calling Liverpool fans in the pub, 'murderers'. That is the level of his debate and the contempt in which he holds Liverpool fans.
The LFCNY want Steve Cohen gone off the air. Gone from Fox, gone from Sirius/XM. He is a merchant of hate who knowingly peddles lies and gets various sponsors to pay for the peddling of these lies. The football (soccer) community in the USA is small enough without having it completely divided by someone who views the deaths of 96 fans as a way in which to smear other football fans.
At the end of the day, there are 96 fans of Liverpool dead. When Steve Cohen besmirches their memory, he insults all Liverpool fans and all football fans. That is why the Celtic Fans Clubs of North America have joined in this boycott of Steve Cohen and his sponsors today.
The LFCNY continues to call on all companies to re-evaluate their sponsorship of Fox Football Fone In and World Soccer Daily.
There are no winners here. The 96 remain dead, but their memory will not be sullied by a non-apology apology from someone who peddles such obvious lies and hate about them as Steve Cohen.
Steve Cohen tries to silence LFCNY hiding behind the 1st Amendment/Press Release
As the LFCNY (www.lfcny.org) expected, Cohen has received some sympathetic press coverage, notably from The LA Daily News and now The New York Times. Both articles are mirror images of each other with much space devoted to the musings of noted constitutional scholar, Steve Cohen, about how Liverpool fans are infringing his 1st Amendment rights via the boycott of his sponsors.
But the fact that this boycott campaign has made it to The New York Times is proof of a few things. A soccer story has gone national in the USA - absent the WC '94 and Beckham and Pele in the 70s, this is a first. Secondly close reading of Cohen's comments show a fundamental misunderstanding of the 1st Amendment and finally Cohen is running scared. (He has taken to recording all his calls on WSD because of this).
The 1st Amendment gives Steve Cohen broad rights to say what he wishes in the public square without government interference or censorship. No, you can't shout 'fire' in a crowded movie theatre, but yes, if you are the KKK, you can march up and down 5th Avenue.
The Government has no right to tell Steve Cohen that he cannot talk about Hillsborough; they cannot force him to tell the truth about Hillsborough; they cannot fine him for knowingly lying about Hillsborough. So Cohen's lies stand or fall on whether sponsors would want to support someone who knowingly lies.
The boycott campaign of the LFCNY is based on the belief that when the sponsors know that he has been lying about a large section of their marketbase, insulting 96 dead fans, they will not support him.
Cohen's pulpit is obviously larger than ours (WSD, FFF), so we have to fly under the mainstream radar, so to speak. We have to email sponsors, post on message boards, talk to blogs. Critical mass builds, NPR, The LA Daily News and now The New York Times gets a hold of the story and suddenly Cohen has to start answering to his sponsors. Their questions have been along the lines of, 'what are you saying in our name with our money?' In the name of his sponsors and with their money, Steve Cohen has been lying, spreading falsehoods, intentionally seeking to cause pain and dividing the burgeoning soccer market in the USA all in the name of furthering his own name and career. Not those of his sponsors.
Steve Cohen is allowed by law to lie. The LFCNY and other Liverpool Supporters Clubs around the world are allowed by law to answer those lies by telling his sponsors what's being said in their name with their money. The 96 dead are part of the DNA of Liverpool Football Club. As supporters, while we might be allowed by law to answer the scurrilious lies of Steve Cohen, our calling is of a higher nature. The 96 were our fellow fans; it could just as easily have been any one of us as all of them.
Steve Cohen's lies cannot stand on any merits, they have no validity, they have no truth. They are the phantasm of a pitiful, small mind. And now he seeks a safe harbor in the 1st Amendment, wrapping himself in America. Which refuge was patriotism again?
The laws of the USA allow Steve Cohen to lie at will; the commercial marketplace might allow him to be paid for those lies. But that's the funny thing about companies who are good corporate citizens and care about their marketing, PR and image. Supporting liars who knowingly and intentionally divide their consumer base usually get weeded out. And that's how companies and consumers exercise their right of free expression.
The LFCNY campaign against Steve Cohen will answer the lies he has told about the 96. They cannot. They are dead.
Our answer, our story, our free expression is that of the truth of 96 dead. I suspect Steve Cohen is hearing the truth of the 96 dead; I know his sponsors have. This freedom of expression, it really is a great thing, isn't it?
Steve Cohen's comments on Hillsborough disaster
On the 15th of April 1989, 96 Liverpool fans died at Hillsborough due to police incompetence and inaction. It has been criminally negligent homicide. To this day, not a single person has been held responsible for this atrocity.
The death of these 96 fellow supporters is as much part of the DNA of Liverpool Football Club as any one of the 18 League Championships or 5 European Cups. These 96 were our fellow fans. Over the years, the fight for justice for the 96 has been constantly waged without much success. Over the years also, some in the media have found reason to lie about what really happened, despite the publication of the official report, The Taylor Report. The S*n newspaper in particular comes to mind.
Unfortunately there are also those in the USA who are looking to further themselves and their careers on the back of the deaths of our fellow fans. Your fellow fans.
Steve Cohen, who appears on Fox Football Phone In and on World Soccer Daily on Sirius, is attempting to make a name for himself slandering all Liverpool fans and the 96 in particular. Some years ago he made baseless claims and retracted them after protests. His apologies were all qualified. This time out he was at it again, claiming that Liverpool fans killed their own by turning up ticketless, a lie refuted by The Taylor Report. In follow up complaints, Cohen responded by linking Hillsborough with Heysel, with murdering Liverpool fans as the common theme. As Liverpool fans we cannot allow this atrocity to stand.
If Steve Cohen wants to smear all of us Liverpool fans with these lies, then let us exact a price on him. We want him gone off the air. Gone from Fox, gone from Sirius, gone from the airwaves. The LFCNY and all the North American Supporters' Branches recommend that you email Steve Cohen's advertisers, letting them know that you will not be using any of their services as long as they financially support this person. Below are a list of those advertisers.
And if you think that campaigns like this never accomplish much, we already have had success with the magazine 442 and the sportswear company 365-inc. agreeing already, before any campaign has really begun, to pull their advertising for this odious person. We want to be seen as responsive, so we also encourage everyone to email 442 and 365-inc. to thank them for supporting this campaign.
Email to sponsors of Steve Cohen:
To whom it may concern,
You advertise on either or both of Steve Cohen's shows on Fox and Sirius. Steve Cohen has, and not for the first time, told lies about the deaths the 96 fans at Hillsborough, claiming that Liverpool fans were responsible for killing their own, amongst other lies. Is this the type of person you want representing your company? Steve Cohen has done this before, apologising when the outrage grew too large. Clearly, he will not stop, so our objective is to see him being put off air permanently.
I urge you to reconsider your purchasing of advertising.
I will be boycotting all your products and services until your support for Steve Cohen and his lies ends.
Thank you,
Jack The Lad
Gary Allen
sales@jackthelad.us and garyah63@msn.com
Press Display
Alex Kroogman
akroogman@newspaperdirect.com
PSG Sports
Nick Roberts
nickr@psgsports.com
Sporting Glory
Michael Coyle
michael.coyle@lawdit.co.uk
The Fix
Declan Hill
declanhill2002@yahoo.com
VIP Communications
customerservice@joinvip.com
Email thanking the sponsors supporting the campaign:
To whom it may concern,
I would like to congratulate and thank you on supporting the ongoing boycott of Steve Cohen for spreading lies about the 96 Liverpool fans who died at Hillsborough. It is wonderful to see such corporate responsibility these days.
Whenever I have the chance, I will buy and recommend your products and services as my way of showing support for your company.
Thank you,
World Soccer Daily Shop
Jeff Stephens
JStephens@365-inc.com
Four Four Two Magazine
Ollie Stretton
Ollie.Stretton@haymarket.com
Who Are Ya Designs
Moki Williams
moki@whoareyadesigns.com
We encourage all members to send both types of email. We have already had success and with your help we will get Steve Cohen off the air. Slandering the 96 is slandering all of us Liverpool fans and a true fans of football. The 96 are not here to defend themselves. You are!
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