Why You Should NOT Buy FHM Magazine

I just found out that people don't know why FHM should be the last mag bought. I thought everyone knew about this, but seeing as they don't, I thought this thread should exist. It was a long time ago, but I haven't bought it since, and I urge you not to either.

FHM in sick Hillsborough stunt

Monday 21 October 2002

The Guardian

FHM in Australia has today been branded "sickening" and "tasteless beyond belief" after it published an article poking fun at the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster, in which 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death.

The article has provoked outrage from the football club and its supporters after it likened crushed fans to shoppers battling to get into end of year sales, and called victims of the crush lying on the pitch as "lazy".

The feature in the November 2002 edition of FHM Australia carries a number of photographs accompanied by highly inappropriate captions.

One picture shows the steel mesh at the front of the terrace with many fans, mainly youngsters, being crushed besides the caption: "Shoppers waited for the doors to open for the end-of-year sale."

Another shows fans in the upper tier trying to lift fans from below to safety with the caption: "Get us a beer while you're there."

Yet another shows victims laid out on advertising hoardings surrounded by distraught helpers and is captioned: "Pitch invaders: lazy."

Furious Liverpool fans, including Jeff Anderson, controller of current affairs and features at Granada Television and the author of The Official Liverpool FC Illustrated History, have wasted no time in contacting the magazine to register their disgust.

"The attempt at humour in the photo captions is tasteless beyond belief, and - for the relatives of those who died - hurtful in the extreme," wrote Mr Anderson in an angry email to the magazine.

"At a time when Australia itself is coming to terms with a horrific tragedy, I find it even harder to understand why you think it's acceptable to poke fun at the innocent victims of one of the worst ever peacetime disasters in Britain," he added.

Mr Anderson called for the magazine to be withdrawn from shop shelves in Australia and asked for a pledge that the article would not be reprinted in the UK edition of FHM.

"It makes my stomach turn to hear that the victims of Hillsborough have been treated in such a sickening way. I will be writing a letter of complaint to the owners and editors of the magazine," said Phil Hammond, secretary of the Hillsborough support group, who has demanded an apology.

"Families of the victims of Hillsborough are at the butt of a very cheap joke and they deserve an apology. There are families who have lost sons the same age as the young men that read this magazine and this is totally unacceptable."

A spokesperson for Liverpool FC said: "The club is absolutely sickened to think anyone could try to find humour in such an appalling tragedy. The captions reported to us are nothing short of a disgrace and it's beyond belief that anyone considered them worthy of publication."

After a string of complaints from the UK, FHM Australia was forced into issuing a grovelling apology.

"It is with sincere apologies and deep condolences that I contact you today. On behalf of FHM Australia, I would like to formally and publicly apologise for the article printed in our November 2002 issue," said John Bastick, editor of the Australian FHM in a statement today.

"The article was in no way meant to make fun or downplay the tragic events of April 15, 1989. In essence, our mandate at FHM is not to cast opinion or promote discussion but to simply entertain our readers. It is this last point that has been stretched by our treatment of the Hillsborough tragedy as we have acted without sensitivity and in a totally inappropriate manner.

"As a nation, we are currently experiencing our worst disaster post the Second World War with the terrorist bombings in Bali. It's difficult to find a person in Australia who has not been affected by this in some way, so in many respects we understand the ongoing pain that you are feeling and the justice and retribution that is sought when such meaningless loss of life occurs."

The sick stunt could have longer term repurcussions for FHM with a possible backlash against the English edition in Liverpool and beyond.

When Kelvin MacKenzie's Sun blamed Liverpool fans for the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 the club's supporters boycotted the tabloid in their droves.

Never knew that Gow, thanks for sharing.

F***ing embarrassing that as an Aussie I feel ashamed.

Yeah, i guess just back in '02 i was 14 and didn't have much access to news and such and had never had the conversation come up since about it. But well in for highlighting it again, im sure there are a bunch around my age or younger who may not know.

Same as Dado, im ashamed it was an Aussie publication that did that.

F***ing disgraceful.

They should never have done it. To get the pics they had to dig deep into research about the disaster, because those pictures are not easily available. So they knew what they were doing. They had no excuse, and that made it so much worse that they did it.

F**kin disgrace. Nearly as bad as the other shitrag. I don't even think pictures from FHM should be published in 'The Hot Woman Thread', that's how strongly I feel. In fact, when they are, they should be deleted IMO.

Agree with Dado and BigV I'm ashamed that sh*t like that came from here.

f***in disgrace. Nearly as bad as the other shitrag. I don't even think pictures from FHM should be published in 'The Hot Woman Thread', that's how strongly I feel. In fact, when they are, they should be deleted IMO.

Maybe something should be written in there similiar to what is in the player threads telling people not to post from that sh*t having said that I think people wouldn't do it anyway after reading this.

Agree with Dado and BigV I'm ashamed that sh*t like that came from here.
Maybe something should be written in there similiar to what is in the player threads telling people not to post from that sh*t having said that I think people wouldn't do it anyway after reading this.

Good point. Not up to me though.

They should never have done it. To get the pics they had to dig deep into research anout the disaster, because those pictures are not easily available. So they knew what they were doing. They had no excuse, and that made it so much worse that they did it.

F**kin disgrace. Nearly as bad as the other shitrag. I don't even think pictures from FHM should be published in 'The Hot Woman Thread', that's how strongly I feel. In fact, when they are, they should be deleted IMO.

My feelings exactly.  Just totally shocked.

I'll send this link to JD and hopefully something is done.

Luckily, that magazine is getting wholloped on the shelves thanks to ZOO magazine.

I'm embarrassed. Well and truly embarrassed.

Just like the other Aussies on here, gutted that a publication in our own Country could come up with sh*t like this. 

F***ing disgraceful.

Good idea Crouchie sending the link to JD.

Going to have to be very wary of some of Macca8's photos in the Very Hot Women Thread as well.

That's very mean of FHM.  Atleast they apologised.  But should have never been printed in the first place.

Guy's there is still Maxim.

Disgrace. i'm shocked and i can't believe i'd never heard of this before.

Disgrace. i'm shocked and i can't believe i'd never heard of this before.

Seconded.

I wasn't aware of this and will certainly never buy that F***ing mag again.

Disgraceful does not even sum it up, total disrespect to the families who lost their loved ones and still have not received the justice they crave and deserve and also the people who witnessed the tragic events unfold before their very own eyes that day, myself included bearing in mind I was 11 years old on April 15th 1989 and it left me traumatised and isolated to an extent for many years following.

FHM magazine should be boycotted just as much as the scum and treated with the contempt it quite rightly deserves, what makes it even more bitterly disappointing for myself and leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth indeed is I have buying their publications on and off for 15 years and partially helped fund the magazine publish such a sick, vulgar portration of the events that unfolded that day, makes me feel sick to the pit of my stomach it really does.

Not that I buy FHM Magazine of course, but I was totally unaware of this.

Spot on to Gow for bringing it to people's attention.

FHM = Scum

That is disgusting, these people really aren't human are they?

Thanks for bringing to everyone's attention Gow.

im disgusted

Surprised at how many people were unaware of this.

It was a disgraceful thing to do. Very distasteful and whoever wrote it was very naive to think it would raise a few laughs.

Cheer's Gow, won't be buying that Arse-rag again

I didnt know about this either. Never have bought the magazine, and never will.

FHM Australia did indeed publish the article 9 years ago for which they apologised quickly.

As far as I am aware they are pretty unconnected to FHM UK, the business basically operating on a franchise.

Also, as far as I know, there is no ban against the magazine in the same way as there is as The S*n.

By all means people can exercise individual choice as to what magazines they buy, but this forum won't be flogging away at a ban on FHM.  If we want to go down that road then people can also refuse to buy The Daily Star, The Times and end their Sky subscription.

There was also another program on Sky I think, When things go bad, or something that referred to Hillsborough hooligans. 

My stance remains

DON'T BUY THE S*N.

Thanks for posting Gow, I was never aware this happened. How editors can look at the final drafts of things like this and think "yeah that seems perfect" is beyond me. Glad to say I've never bought the magazine and won't be doing so after reading this.

A F***ing disgrace that !

Disgraceful. Thanks for posting it Gow.

I was aware of this before it was posted, but due to the lack of publicity as most of it was focused on The S*n, I overlooked the importance of it.

Still I've never bought that mag before.