- For other uses, see Sun (disambiguation).
The Sun, a tabloid daily newspaper published in the United Kingdom, has the highest circulation of any daily English-language newspaper in the world, standing at around 3,200,000 copies daily in late-2004. It is published by News Group Newspapers of News International, itself a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Despite its popularity, many educated people consider it coarse and unprofessional and its journalistic style amateurish and sensationalist.
History
The Sun was launched in 1964 as a replacement for the Daily Herald, an ailing left-wing newspaper which Mirror Group Newspapers had bought from Odhams Press and the TUC. The changes did not help circulation and in 1969 the paper was sold to Murdoch. At this point, the newspaper became a tabloid. The News of the World presses were used during the week - Murdoch had bought the Sunday newspaper the previous year - and the two papers were now managed together at the senior executive levels.
The editorial content of the paper was popularised and coarsened (initially remaining loyal to the Labour Party) and the circulation increased, particularly when the Page Three Girl feature changed, on its first anniversary in 1970, from being a glamour pinup to a topless photograph, although "Page Three" was not a daily feature at first.
In the two 1974 elections, the papers attitude to the Labour Party was "agnostic", according to Roy Greenslade in Press Gang (2003); the then editor, Anthony Shrimsley , had always been a Conservative. As the Labour government limped on and declined in popularity, the Sun's editorial stance became sympathetic to the Conservative Party. By 1978 The Sun had overtaken its erstwhile stablemate The Mirror in circulation, partly thanks to remorseless advertising on ITV, voiced by actor Christopher Timothy . From 1981, the Sun used Bingo as a promotional tool to increase its circulation still further.
Despite the industrial relations of the 1970's - the so-called "Spanish practices" of the print unions - The Sun was very profitable, enabling Murdoch to expand to the United States from 1973. In 1986 Murdoch shut down the Bouverie Street premises of the Sun and News of the World, sacked the striking printers, and moved operations to the new Wapping complex (see Wapping dispute); the two papers were temporarily produced by a skeleton staff. The increased profitability of the two tabloids helped Murdoch to launch the Sky satellite channels and to pursue preditory pricing of The Times (from 1993) against its own rivals.
Notoriety
Critics of the paper accuse it of being jingoistic, sensationalistic and subservient to Murdoch's point of view. It infamously printed the headline "Gotcha" when, during the Falklands War, Argentinian ship the General Belgrano was sunk, and often refers to foreign leaders in unflatterings terms—such as dubbing president Jacques Chirac of France "le Worm". Support of British troops—referred to as "Our Boys"—in action is invariably unequivocable and the paper has fully supported the ongoing war in Iraq.
Also controversial has been the paper's alleged homophobia. This started in the 1980s as the new Greater London Council led by Ken Livingstone gave (modest) financial support to various gay rights and support groups. When Peter Mandelson was "outed" by Matthew Paris on Newsnight in October 1999, the paper called for it to be stated whether Britain was governed by a "gay mafia", as there were then several openly gay members of the British Cabinet, only for the paper's attitudes to be completely reversed the next day, because of the uproar which had ensued. In reality, Chris Smith, Nick Brown and Mandelson were by no means allies.
The Sun was condemned for its coverage of the 1989 Hillsborough football stadium disaster in Liverpool, where it printed allegations against Liverpool football fans that were later found to be untrue. This caused a boycott of the Sun in Liverpool. It made a full page 'apology' on July 7, 2004, 15 years after the disaster, which has been criticised by some as self-serving [1]. For more on this controversy, see 'The Sun newspaper' section in 'Hillsborough disaster'.
Tabloid values
In the main, the paper relies on the entertainment industry for its content. In addition to writers covering celebrities-about-town and the latest soap storylines, the paper is always on the lookout for celebrities in trouble or dishabille. Pictures are preferred and The Sun supplies much of the paparazzi with its raison d'etre. Outside this arena, common story themes include immigration, the so called "destruction of the British way of life" by Europe, domestic abuse and paedophiles - though the latter was once undermined by a beautiful baby competition run at the same time.
Editorially, the paper takes a right-wing view, staunchly anti-European and conservative, although this has not stopped it giving support to the ruling "New Labour" Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Tony Blair since 1997. This was repeated in 2001 and 2005.
The current editor is Rebekah Wade, the first female editor in the paper's history.
Editors
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.
External link
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.
See List of newspapers in the United Kingdom for a comparison of The Sun to other newspapers.
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04
