The Sun (newspaper)
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The Sun, a tabloid daily newspaper published in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, has the highest circulation of any daily English-language newspaper in the world, standing at around 3,200,000 copies daily in late-2004, but at one point in the past decade, almost 5 million. The daily readership is just under 8,500,000 and it has more than twice as many readers in the ABC1 demographic than its upmarket stablemate The Times, although much less as a proportion of total sales. It is published by News Group Newspapers of News International, itself a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
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The Sun before Murdoch
The Sun was launched in 1964 as a replacement for the Daily Herald, which Mirror Group Newspapers had bought from Odhams Press and the TUC. The Herald, which had until its sale to Mirror Group in 1960 officially taken the political line of the Labour Party and remained Labour-loyalist after that, was selling well over 1.2 million copies a day at the time of its demise. But its ageing working-class readers were unattractive to advertisers, Mirror Group did not want the Herald to compete with the Mirror, and market research suggested there was demand for a new mid-market left-of-centre daily.
But The Sun did not live up to Mirror Group's expectations. Circulation continued to decline, and in 1969 Mirror Group sold the paper to Rupert Murdoch — a move supported by the print trade unions because Murdoch promised their jobs were safe.
The early Murdoch years
Murdoch immediately relaunched the newspaper as a tabloid, and ran The Sun as a sister paper to the News of the World, the sensationalist Sunday newspaper he had bought the previous year. The Sun used the same printing presses, and the two papers were now managed together at senior executive levels.
The editorial content of the paper was moved downmarket, most notably by the introduction of the Page Three Girl, a pin-up that changed, on its first anniversary in 1970, from being a nude glamour photograph to top-half-only nude, although "Page Three" was not a daily feature at first.
Despite the industrial relations of the 1970s - the so-called "Spanish practices" of the print unions - The Sun was very profitable, enabling Murdoch to expand to the United States from 1973.
Politically, The Sun in the early Murdoch years remained nominally Labour, although in the two 1974 elections, the paper's attitude to Labour was "agnostic", according to Roy Greenslade in Press Gang (2003). The then editor, Larry Lamb, was originally from a Labour background, with a socialist upbringing. Deputy editor Bernard Shrimsley was a middle class (although not committed) Tory.
But from the election of Margaret Thatcher as Conservative leader in 1975, The Sun changed track, and it urged readers to vote for her in the 1979 general election.
Thatcherite king of the tabloids
In the meantime, The Sun had overtaken the Daily Mirror in circulation (in 1978), partly thanks to extensive advertising on ITV, voiced by actor Christopher Timothy. From 1981, The Sun used Bingo as a promotional tool to increase its circulation still further.
In 1986 Murdoch shut down the Bouverie Street premises of The Sun and News of the World and moved operations to the new Wapping complex, blocking union activity and greatly reducing the number of staff employed to print the papers; a year-long picket by sacked workers was eventually defeated (see Wapping dispute). The increased profitability of the two tabloids helped Murdoch to launch the Sky satellite channels and to pursue predatory pricing of The Times (from 1993) against its own rivals.
The Sun was a strong champion of Margaret Thatcher and her policies and maintained its support for the Conservatives after Thatcher was succeeded by John Major in 1990. On the day of the 1992 election, its front-page headline was "If [Labour leader] Neil Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights", and two days later the Sun was so convinced of its contributions to the Conservative victory that it declared "IT WAS THE SUN WOT WON IT".
The Sun goes Labour again
The Sun switched support to Labour following the election of Tony Blair to the leadership of the Labour Party in 1994. Since then it has - despite strong criticism of some of Labour's policies - supported Labour in elections. Some critics have suggested that this is because of some deal between Blair and Murdoch; others say that Murdoch has simply followed his usual opportunist policy of backing winners.
Controversy
The Sun under Murdoch has been a consistent subject of controversy. From the early 1970s, feminists and many cultural conservatives objected to the Page 3 girl, which they saw as pornographic. And after The Sun abandoned Labour for Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives, these critics were joined by left-wingers who objected to the paper's relentlessly right-wing populist political line, which they said was jingoistic, racist and homophobic. More generally, the Murdoch Sun has been criticised since its launch for its sensationalism, which on occasion has led it to publish stories on the most dubious evidence, and for its focus on celebrities for its news and feature coverage. It has regularly been accused of appealing to the lowest common denominator and dumbing down public discourse.
Coverage of the UK Miners' strike (1984-1985) was extremely one-sided on the side of the government and there were incidents where staff threatened to resign over what they saw as deliberate misinformation. To this day, the paper's circulation in the old mining areas of the country remains much smaller than in the rest of the country.
The accusations of jingoism are not unfounded. The paper famously (or infamously) published the headline "GOTCHA" when, during the Falklands War, the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano was sunk, and it continues to take a hardline Eurosceptic position on the European Union. Support of British troops — referred to as "Our Boys" — in action is invariably unequivocal. Like all Murdoch-owned media, the paper has fully supported the ongoing war in Iraq and is uncritically Atlanticist. The Sun's ultra-patriotism has, however, outgrown the racism some claim it came close to embracing in the 1970s and 1980s — the nadir was its coverage of the Broadwater Farm riot of 1985 — perhaps because Murdoch and his editors have realised that it needs to appeal to ethnic minority readers. In recent years the Sun has not played the race card, although it has been as forceful on asylum-seekers as the Daily Express and the Daily Mail. On 15 July 2004, one notable front-page headline read, "Bloody Nasty People", in a report on a TV documentary exposé on the British National Party. It is believed by some people to have unwittingly provided free publicity for the BNP. [1] [2]
The worst moment journalistically for The Sun's sensationalism was its coverage of the 1989 Hillsborough football stadium disaster in Sheffield, where 96 people died and 730 were injured. Under a banner of the headline "THE TRUTH" the paper published a number of entirely false claims about the disaster, including the allegations that "Some fans picked pockets of victims" and "Some fans urinated on the brave cops" and "Some fans beat up PC giving kiss of life" (19 April 1989). This caused outrage amongst the people of Liverpool and the paper stills sells poorly in the city to this day.
Eddie Spearitt, who lost his son in the tragedy, said, "As I lay in my hospital bed, the hospital staff kept the Sun away from me. It's bad enough when you lose your fourteen-year-old son because you're treating him to a football match. But since then I've had to defend him against all the rubbish printed by the Sun." Pilger article The Sun made a full page 'apology' on July 7 2004, 15 years after the disaster, which featured Liverpudlian Wayne Rooney, which has been criticised by some as self-serving [3]. For more on this controversy, see 'The Sun newspaper' section in 'Hillsborough disaster'.
The Sun's attitude to homosexuality has also changed in recent years. In the early 1980s, the paper was excoriating about the Greater London Council, led by Ken Livingstone, giving (modest) financial support to various gay rights groups. In the 1990s, the paper campaigned against "pulpit poofs", as it described gay Church of England clergy, and hounded the pop musician Elton John for his homosexuality (for which it lost a libel action after falsely accusing him of having a relationship with a rent boy). And when Peter Mandelson was "outed" by Matthew Parris (a gay former columnist on The Sun) on Newsnight in October 1999, the paper asked whether Britain was governed by a "gay mafia", as there were then several openly gay members of the British cabinet. The next day, however, after it became clear that it had got the popular mood wrong, the paper apologised.
The Sun was also traditionally very much against swearing, indeed, on Page Three, "tits" would often be spelt "t*ts". However this has relaxed in recent years, after the body of Sarah Payne was found, where the headline was "NAIL THE BASTARD".
The Sun newspaper normally attacks strongly politicians who show themselves to support policies deemed undesirable by the Sun, either from England or Europe. It routinely refers to foreign leaders in unflattering terms — such as dubbing president Jacques Chirac of France "le Worm" — and is consistently and deliberately offensive to the French and the Germans at every opportunity. When France declared itself against the Iraq war the editorial said "The French President is an unscrupulous, conniving, preening, lying, cheating hypocrite". George Galloway is quite frequently referred to in denigrating language and accused of befriending Saddam Hussein and his sons. Some may argue this displays a level of hypocrisy considering that Saddam Hussein was at one time a recognized ally of the United States of America and Britain. Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein An example of the dualistic approach comes from 1990, when a British journalist named Farzad Bazoft was hanged by the Hussein regime for alleged espionage. The Sun published a conviction of Bazoft for minor theft when he was a student. This information was allegedly supplied by MI5 in accordance with a request by the Thatcher government. [4] (Article by John Pilger, Australian journalist).
More recently, The Sun labelled many British MPs as traitors, for failing to vote in favour of controversial anti-terrorism laws [5]. In the run up to the vote on Tuesday 8 November, The Sun featured bombs victim John Tulloch on its front page and implored readers to "Tell Tony He's Right" in their headline, despite Tulloch being vociferously opposed to the measure and to the Government's action.
Popularity
Some believe that The Sun is Britain’s most popular daily paper as it voices the views of working class conservatives. As such, some of these proponents argue that the working class are, in the majority, a politically right-wing section of society.
Others argue that the popularity of the paper is due to a number of factors that are interlinked. Some readers would claim that the Sun gets the best scoops and pictures, others that it provides the best celebrity coverage. Some claim that the sports coverage is better than that found in other papers. It is also argued that The Sun is often first in announcing Football transfers, and that they frequently get interviews with the biggest names in sport.
One factor claimed to make The Sun so popular is the wittiness of its writing - puns and word play are often employed to make light of situations. An example, found on the front page of the tabloid's website, being "Orlaith's bare-faced cheek" (Orlaith McAllister being a popular Glamour model in men's magazines). Another example is that during the Turner prize, The Sun asked its readers to re-create the exhibits themselves, after which they were judged by The Sun’s 'Fine Art Critic', "Toulouse Le Plot".
Some argue that the inclusion of light pornography on page three of the paper, although criticised by others as offensive, has helped attract a large male readership - particularly during the 1970s when it was unusual for any form of pornography to be included in a national newspaper.
The Sun today
The Sun remains reliant on the entertainment industry, royalty and sport as well as news and politics for its content, with many items often revolving around celebrities and similar individuals.
In addition to writers covering celebrities-about-town and the latest soap opera storylines, the paper is always on the lookout for celebrities in trouble or dishabille. Pictures are preferred and The Sun often uses pictures taken by paparazzi.
Outside celebrity-based content, common story themes include immigration, security scandals, the so-called "destruction of the British way of life" by Europe, domestic abuse and paedophiles - though some people suggested that the latter was once undermined by a beautiful baby competition (with plenty of photographs of young children) run at the same time which they claimed might attract the attention of unsavoury individuals, and further undermined by their Page 3 girl, who is often a teenager.
Politically, The Sun remains on the populist right and backs Blair and New Labour.
The current editor is Rebekah Wade, the first female editor in the paper's history. In the early hours of November 3, 2005 Wade was briefly held in custody for an assault on her husband, the actor Ross Kemp, though she was released without charge after eight hours. In the preceding few weeks, the newspaper had been running a campaign against domestic violence. The Sun tried to downplay the incident by suggesting that the pair had simply had a big argument, and that Kemp's injuries were a result of earlier filming. Ironically, in the same edition the Sun ran the story on an almost identical incident involving Kemp's EastEnders co-star (and on-screen brother) Steve McFadden.
Editors
- Graham Dudman (current Managing Editor)
- Sidney Jacobsen (1964–1965) (previously editor of the Daily Herald before the name change)
- Dick Dinsdale (1965–1969)
- Larry Lamb (1969–1972)
- Bernard Shrimsley (1972–1975) (Lamb was "editorial director", supervising both the Sun and NOW)
- Larry Lamb (1975–1980) (Lamb took an enforced six month sabbatical before being sacked by Murdoch)
- Kelvin MacKenzie (1981–1994)
- Stuart Higgins (1994–1998)
- David Yelland (1998–2003)
- Rebekah Wade (2003–)
Current Journalists and Writers
- Beci Wood
- Pete Bell
- Victoria Raymond
- Emily Smith, US editor
- George Pascoe-Watson
- Alex Kasriel
- Corinne Abrams
- Victoria Newton
- Frank Praverman
- Robin Amlot
- John Coles
- James Clench
- David Wooding, whitehall editor
- Richard White
- Gary OShea
- Andrew Parker
- Dave Masters
- Veronica Lorraine
- Lucy Hagan
- Jamie Pyatt
- Jerome Starkey
- Ian King, business editor
- Jon Gaunt
- Jane Moore
- Fergus Shanahan
- Anila Baig
- Ally Ross
Related newspapers
Other newspapers published within the UK with "tabloid values" are the Daily Express, the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Star, and the Daily Sport. Of these, only the Mirror supports the Labour Party, the others are conservative. See List of newspapers in the United Kingdom for a comparison of The Sun to other newspapers.
Note: the Sunday equivalent of The Sun in the UK is the News of the World – the Sunday Sun is an unrelated tabloid newspaper, published in Newcastle upon Tyne.
In the Republic of Ireland, an Irish edition of The Sun, known as The Irish Sun, is published. This contains much of the same content as the main UK edition, but with some Irish news and editorial content, as well as advertising. However, it uses a slightly bigger sheet size than the UK version, and costs €0.80.
The first newspaper to carry the Sun masthead was published in 1792 by the Pitt government to counter the pro-revolutionary press at that time.
The Toronto Sun in Canada copied itself after the newspaper, including a sunshine girl (who has never been topless).
See also
- Tabloid ("red top")
- Hold Ye Front Page
- Dear Deidre
- Striker (comic)
External links
- Official website
- BBC: On This Day 1964
- BBC, 14 September 2004, Forty Years of the Sun
- Newspaper Marketing Agency Facts & Figures
- A page on the history of the sun newspaper
- Wapping: legacy of Rupert's revolution, January 15, 2006 - The Observer:
- Three views of the industrial dispute twenty years on.
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