The Sun (newspaper)
"The Sun" redirects here. For the astronomical object, see Sun. For other uses, see Sun (disambiguation).The Sun is a
tabloid daily newspaper published in the
United Kingdom and the
Republic of Ireland with the highest
circulation of any daily English-language newspaper in the world, standing at 3,154,881 copies daily in early 2006 [
1], (compared to
USA Today, the best-selling US newspaper at 2,281,831 [
2]). 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.
The Sun before Murdoch
The Sun was launched in 1964 as a replacement for the
Daily Herald, which
IPC had bought from
Odhams Press and the
TUC. The
Herald, which had until its sale 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 and IPC did not want the
Herald to compete with the
Mirror. Market research conducted by
Mark Abrams suggested that there was demand for a new mid-market left-of-centre daily which reflected perceived changes in Britain's
demographics.
But
The Sun, in this early form, did not live up to the expectations. Circulation continued to decline, and in 1969 the IPC-Mirror Group sold the paper to Rupert Murdoch â€" a move supported by the print trade unions because Murdoch promised that 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 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 but uncommitted
Tory.
The Sun changed track and caused a small stir by endorsing
Margaret Thatcher in the 1979 general election.
Thatcherite king of the tabloids
In the meantime,
The Sun had overtaken the
Daily Mirror in circulation by 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, and the heavy use of tax avoidance on those profits, helped Murdoch to launch the
Sky satellite channels and allowed him from 1993 to pursue predatory pricing with
The Times against its rivals.
The Sun was a very strong supporter of
Margaret Thatcher and her policies, and maintained its support for the Conservatives when 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 in 1996, months before the General Election which would see Labour leader
Tony Blair become Prime Minister. Since then it has supported Labour in each of the subsequent three elections, despite criticising some of Labour's policies. 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."
The Sun today
The Sun remains reliant on covering the
entertainment industry, attacking
royalty and following sports, as well as news and politics for its content, with many items often revolving around
celebrities.
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 scandal. Pictures are preferred and
The Sun often uses pictures taken by
paparazzi.
Outside the celebrity-based content, common story themes include immigration, security scandals,
domestic abuse and
paedophiles -- though some people suggest that the latter was once undermined by a "beautiful baby" competition (with plenty of photographs of young children), which might attract the attention of unsavoury individuals. The Page 3 pin-up girl is often a teenager.
Politically,
The Sun remains populist 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.
The Sun is known in
Cockney rhyming slang as
The Currant Bun [
3].
National controversy
The Sun under Murdoch has been a consistent subject of controversy. From the early 1970s, both
feminists and many cultural conservatives objected to the Page 3 girls, which they saw as pornographic. After
The Sun abandoned Labour for Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives, these critics were joined by left-wingers objecting to the paper's relentlessly "right-wing" populist political line, which they claimed 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 spurious 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.
The newspaper's coverage of the
miners' strike of 1984-85 was slanted towards 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 Britain remains much smaller than in the country as a whole.
The paper famously (or infamously) published the headline "GOTCHA" when, during the
Falklands War, the
Argentine cruiser
General Belgrano was sunk (although that headline was dropped when the extent of Argentinian casualties became known), 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 Suns ultra-patriotism has, however, outgrown the racism some claim it came close to embracing in the 1970s and 1980s â€" the nadir was its coverage of the Broadwater Farm riot of 1985 â€" perhaps because Murdoch and his editors have realised that it needs to appeal to ethnic minority readers to sell its paper. 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. [4] [5]
The worst moment journalistically for The Suns 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 lies 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. This has been criticised by some as self-serving [
6]. For more on this controversy, see
'The Sun newspaper' section in 'Hillsborough disaster'.
On
September 23 2003 the newspaper spectacularly misjudged the public mood surrounding mental health. When the former boxer
Frank Bruno was admitted to hospital, it ran with
Bonkers Bruno Locked Up across its front page. The reaction was so strong and immediate that by its second edition the headline had become:
Sad Bruno In Mental Home.[
7]
The Sun's attitude to homosexuality has also changed in recent years. In the early 1980s, the paper was excoriating the
Greater London Council, led by
Ken Livingstone, giving 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 paper apologised the next day.
The Sun was also traditionally very much against swearing, indeed, on Page Three, "tits" would often be spelt "t*ts". However this has been relaxed in recent years, after the body of
Sarah Payne was found, where the headline was "NAIL THE BASTARD".
The Sun newspaper normally attacks 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. It has been argued that this displays a level of hypocrisy considering that
Saddam Hussein was at one time a recognized ally of Britain and the United States of America.
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. [
8] (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 [
9]. In the run up to the vote on Tuesday
8 November,
The Sun featured bombs victim John Tulloch on its front page with the words "Tell Tony He's Right" in their headline, despite Tulloch being vociferously opposed to the measure and to the Government's action [
10].
International controversy
British tabloids are infamous abroad for being offensive and tasteless, some notable examples of
The Sun's efforts to give
Freedom of the press a bad name:
"Is THIS the most dangerous man in EUROPE?"On
25 November 1998, the question was asked in regard to German
Oskar Lafontaine, during The Sun's campaign against the
Euro.
"Urs hole"British tabloids and British
hooligans joined their efforts in harassing Swiss referee
Urs Meier after the English lost in the quarter-final where Meier disallowed an English goal for a foul on the goalkeeper. English media and football fans were not happy with this decision, blaming Meier, calling him "Urs hole" and "idiot ref". After his personal details were published by British tabloid newspapers, Meier received more than 16,000 abusive e-mails, and also death threats. Reporters of
The Sun even travelled to Switzerland and placed an English flag at his home. As a result, he was placed under
police protection. At the airport, Meier was picked from the plane and had to hide for seven days, and could not meet his children for four days.
"From Hitler Youth to Papa Ratzi"Headline of
20 April 2005 about German
Joseph Ratzinger being elected
Pope Benedict XVI"I'm Big in the Bumdestag"Headline of
17 April 2006 about a Paparazzo picture taken of German chancellor
Angela Merkel's rear during a change of clothing while on holiday in Italy. Additional puns were "the cheeky chancellor" and "the Iron Frau", and "much improved bottom line" in regard to economy.
Some believe that
The Sun is Britain's most popular daily paper because it voices the views of the working class.
Others argue that the popularity of the paper is due to a number of interlinked factors. 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 perceived wittiness of its writing.
Puns and
word play are often employed to make light of situations. As an example, 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". Perhaps the supreme example was limited to the Scottish edition after Inverness Caledonian Thistle, a First Division football club, knocked Cup favourite Celtic out. The Sun's verdict? "SUPERCALEYGOBALLISTICCELTICAREATROCIOUS", (SUPER CALEY GO BALLISTIC CELTIC ARE ATROCIOUS).
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. Though today many would argue if this was all they wanted in a paper they would simply buy
The Daily Sport.
*
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–)
*
Corinne Abrams*
Robin Amlot* Henry Austin
*
Anila Baig*
Pete Bell* Tony Bonnici
*
Lachlan Cartwright*
Jeremy Clarkson*
James Clench*
John Coles* Emma Cox, TV Editor
* Mark Fielden, Features Sub-editor
*
Jon Gaunt*
Lucy Hagan* Sean Hamilton, Deputy Showbiz Editor
*
John Kay*
Lorraine Kelly* Ian King, business editor
* Dannielle Lawler, showbiz reporter
* Veronica Lorraine
*
Harry Macadam* Sharon Marshall
* Dave Masters
*
Mystic Meg* Jane Moore
* Sara Nathan
* Victoria Newton, Bizarre editor
* Tom Newton Dunn, defence editor
* Andrew Parker
* George Pascoe-Watson, political editor
* Guy Patrick
* Frank Praverman
* Jamie Pyatt
* Colin Robertson
* Ally Ross
*
Deidre Sanders* Fergus Shanahan
* Kerry Sheehan
*
Rob Shepherd* Gordon Smart, Deputy Bizarre Editor
* Emily Smith, US editor
* Jerome Starkey
*
Jane Symons, editor, Sun Health
* Jacqui Thornton
* John Troup
* Virginia Wheeler
* Richard White
* Beci Wood
* David Wooding, whitehall editor
* Samantha Woostear
*Simon Cosyns
*Jo Madden
*Kathryn George
*Tony ward
*Mark Crofts
*Tony Brannon
*Tony McCabe
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, although The Sun has supported New Labour from 1996. It is not known whether the paper will continue supporting New Labour in a post-Blair era. 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. It tends to replace articles that would be seen as anti-Irish with ones more palatable to their readership there. One notable example is how the release of the film
The Wind That Shakes the Barley was covered, with the UK editions describing it as "designed to drag the reputation of our nation through the mud" and "the most pro-IRA ever"[
11], whereas the Irish edition described it as giving "the Brits a tanning"[
12]. It uses a slightly bigger sheet size than the UK version, and costs €0.80.
There is also a Scottish edition of
The Sun, known as
The Scottish Sun. Based in Glasgow, the paper sells for just 10p in the West of Scotland in an effort to overtake its Scottish tabloid rival
The Daily Record.
The Scottish Sun is often referred to as "a downmarket, English-based tabloid" within the traditional Scottish press, and it is often conspicuous by its bias toward English news coverage.
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 modelled itself on the newspaper, including a sunshine girl (who has never been topless). The "Sun" masthead has since spread to many other cities in Canada.
*
Tabloid ("red top")
*
Hold Ye Front Page*
Dear Deidre*
Striker (comic)*
Freddie Starr*
Official website*
BBC: On This Day 1964*
BBC,
14 September 2004,
Forty Years of the Sun*
Newspaper Marketing Agency Facts & Figures*
Wapping: legacy of Rupert's revolution,
January 15,
2006 -
The Observer:
**Three views of the industrial dispute twenty years on.
