Rupert Murdoch and The Sun
Rupert Murdoch is an Australian born American, who owns a number of the world’s top media outlets. Murdoch, who is the 132nd richest person in the world bought ‘The Sun’ newspaper in 1969. He transformed The Sun into a red top tabloid, which was, and still is primarily aimed at the working class.
The common formula in the early days was ‘Sensation, Sex and Sport’, under the editorship of Larry Lamb. This shocked the nation at first, particularly with the inclusion of topless models in the paper; but sales of the tabloid soared.
On taking over the paper, Murdoch was quoted as saying that he would publish a 'straightforward, honest paper’.
However, The Sun has always carried an obvious media bias in terms of politics. In 2007 Murdoch was quoted as saying he considered himself to be a traditional proprietor, which means that he has control over which political party The Sun backs, as well as other major issues.
Initially, the tabloid supported the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, and the Conservative party. In the late nineties Murdoch and The Sun infamously changed their allegiance to the Labour party ahead of the 1997 general election. However, in 2009 Murdoch, once again changed back to the Conservative party, who are currently favourites for the next general election. Many people believe that Murdoch plainly supports the party which looks most likely to win, as this gives him the chance to influence government policies.
There have been six editors during Murdoch’s reign as owner of the paper. The longest serving and arguably most controversial was Kelvin MacKenzie, who was appointed in 1981 and held the post until 1994. During this time The Sun became established as the nation’s best selling newspaper. However this was also arguably the most controversial era of The Sun under Murdoch’s ownership. MacKenzie was held responsible for some of the most shocking and damaging Sun stories. One of the most controversial stories was run by MacKenzie at the beginning of the Falklands war, when the General Belgrano was torpedoed by British troops. ‘Gotcha’ was the headline in the first edition which caused great controversy, as it was understood that the attack on the ship was unlawful, which made the headline all the more insensitive. However in ‘Stick It Up Your Punter’ a book which labels itself the 'Uncut story of the Sun newspaper' stated that when questioned about the headline, Murdoch remarked; ‘I rather like it’.
The most damaging times during Murdoch’s reign was the coverage of the Hillsborough football stadium disaster in 1989. MacKenzie ran a story headlined ‘The Truth’, and gave a highly controversial account of what happened, with little of what was written based on fact. The story caused uproar, and was considered completely inaccurate by both the government inquiry as well as the Press Council. Murdoch later ordered Mackenzie to apologise live on national radio. He was encouraged to leave his post five years later by Murdoch and there have been four other editors since his departure.
Rupert Murdoch has successfully used The Sun to help him dominate the world of media, as it has given him the platform to have an impact on the world of British politics.
References
-wikipedia.com
-BBC News archive at bbcnews.co.uk
- ‘Stick It Up Your Punter’ by Peter Chippingdale and Chris Horrie
- thesun.co.uk
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