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 3,107,412 copies daily in the first half of 2006,^[1]. The daily readership is just over 7,800,000 and it has more than twice as many readers in the ABC1 demographic as 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 was launched in 1964 as a replacement for the Daily Herald, of which Mirror Group had acquired 51 per cent ownership when it took over Odhams Press in 1961. The Herald, 49 per cent owned by the Trades Union Congress and until recently tied to supporting official Labour Party policy, was selling more than 1.4 million copies a day at the time of the takeover. But its ageing working-class readers were unattractive to advertisers, and the paper's new owners (who in 1963 renamed their printing and publishing empire the International Publishing Corporation) 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, and IPC persuaded an initially reluctant TUC to sell its shares to allow the relaunch of the Herald as The Sun.

The relaunched paper did not live up to IPC's expectations, however. Circulation continued to decline, and it was soon losing even more money than the Herald had lost. In 1969, IPC decided to throw in the towel and sold the ailing paper to Rupert Murdoch — a move supported by the print trade unions because Murdoch promised that their jobs were safe.

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 bikini-clad glamour photograph to topless photograph, 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 uncommitted Conservative.

The Sun changed track and caused a small stir by endorsing Margaret Thatcher in the 1979 general election.

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 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 switched support to Labour in March 1997 when the General Election 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 their policies. Some say this was down to the paper's general disillusionment with the Conservative party since Black Wednesday. Others have argued that the newspaper changed its stance as it knew there was zero chance of the Conservative Party winning the 1997 General Election, and therefore afterwards would not have been seen as having backed a loser.

The Sun relies on stories about the entertainment industry, gossip concerning the British monarchy, and sports, as well as news and politics for its content, with many items 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.

Its serious news stories frequently focus on themes of immigration, security scandals, domestic abuse and paedophiles. The Page 3 pin-up girl is invariably a girl between the ages of 18-28, posing topless.

The current editor is Rebekah Wade, the first female editor in the paper's history.

The Sun has attempted to create a term for itself in Cockney rhyming slang as The Currant Bun.^[2]

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.

The Sun launched a campaign in January 2007 asking their readers to report to their investigative department the "sickest websites" they find on the internet. This follows a recent exposé The Sun uncovered about websites dealing in human organs.^[3]

After The Sun had abandoned Labour by 1979 for Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives, these critics were joined by left-wingers objecting to the paper's allegedly 'right-wing' populist political line, which, according to criticism, 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 supported the government in the miners' strike of 1984-85 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 infamously published the headline "GOTCHA" when, during the Falklands War, the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was torpedoed, although that headline was dropped when it was known that the ship had sunk and the extent of Argentinian casualties became clear. Support of British troops — referred to as "Our Boys" — in action is invariably unequivocal. 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. It has been as forceful on asylum-seekers as the Daily Express and the Daily Mail. On July 4, 2003 it printed a front page story under the headline "Swan Bake" claiming that asylum seekers were slaughtering and eating swans. It later emerged that the story had no factual basis but The Sun defiantly published a follow up story headlined "Now they're after our fish!". Following a Press Complaints Commission adjudication a "clarification" was eventually printed - on page 41.^[4]

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 incidents at the disaster, including claims that some fans picked the pockets of crush victims, that others urinated upon members of the emergency services as they tried to assist and that some even assaulted a Police Constable "whilst he was administering the kiss of life to a patient" (19 April 1989). This caused outrage amongst the people of Liverpool and the paper still sells poorly in the city to this day. It is unavailable in many parts of the city, as many newsagents refuse to stock it.

On January 2005 The Sun's managing editor Graham Dudman claimed their coverage of the Hillsborough disaster was "the worst mistake in their history", he further added, "What we did was a terrible mistake. It was a terrible, insensitive, horrible article, with a dreadful headline; but what we'd also say is: we have apologised for it, and the entire senior team here now is completely different from the team that put the paper out in 1989." Although Dudman made this claim/apology in January 2005 he rehired Kelvin MacKenzie (the editor responsible for their biggest mistake in history) as a columnist in May 2006, furthermore, on January 11, 2007, MacKenzie went on record as a panellist on BBC1's Question Time as saying the apology he made after the disaster was a hollow one, forced upon him by the paper's proprietor, Rupert Murdoch. MacKenzie further claimed he was not sorry "for telling the truth" but he admitted that he did not know for sure whether some Liverpool fans urinated on the police, or robbed victims.^[5]

On 13 March 1986 The Sun carried as it main headline: "FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER". According to the text of the story, the British comedian Freddie Starr had been staying at the home of Vince McCaffrey and his 23-year old girlfriend Lea La Salle in Birchwood, Cheshire when the incident took place. Starr was claimed to have returned home from a performance at a Manchester nightclub in the small hours of the morning and demanded that Lea La Salle make him a sandwich. When she refused, he went into the kitchen and put her pet hamster Supersonic between two slices of bread and proceeded to eat it.

Freddie Starr gives his side of the story in his 2001 autobiography Unwrapped. He says that the only time that he ever stayed at Vince McCaffrey's house was in 1979 and that the incident was a complete fabrication. Starr writes in the book: "I have never eaten or even nibbled a live hamster, gerbil, guinea pig, mouse, shrew, vole or any other small mammal." The man behind the hamster story was the British publicist Max Clifford. When asked in a television interview with Esther Rantzen some years later whether Starr really had eaten a hamster, his reply was "Of course not." Clifford was unapologetic, insisting that the story had given a huge boost to Starr's career. In May 2006 the BBC nominated "FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER" as one of the top British newspaper headlines of all time. ^[6]

On September 22 2003 the newspaper misjudged the public mood surrounding mental health. When the former boxer Frank Bruno was admitted to hospital, early editions read 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]

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 late 1980s and early 1990s, the paper campaigned against "pulpit poofs", as it described gay Church of England clergy, and in 1987 published a front-page article falsely accusing the pop musician Elton John of having sexual relationships with rent boys and indulging in under-age sex. A furious John successfully sued the paper for libel and damages. The paper settled out of court for a million pounds and printed a full, front page apology titled "Sorry Elton". During the 1980s the paper carried a number of articles related to the supposed sexual orientation of a number of famous people, including one particular article written by Piers Morgan titled 'The Poofs of Pop', where the paper gave its verdict on whether endless male pop stars were gay or not.^[8].

When Peter Mandelson was "outed" by Matthew Parris (a gay former columnist on The Sun) on Newsnight in November 1998, the paper asked whether Britain was governed by a "gay mafia", as there were then several openly gay members of the British cabinet. The newspaper apologised the following day. The Sun's U-turn on its views of homosexuality dispells the notion that their editorial position on the subject in prior years was based on a religious pretext, rather it was strictly sensationalist journalism for commercial purposes. This would explain the present tone in which their entertainment sections now hype and promote rather than ridicule or pour scorn over TV programmes that are based on alternative lifestyles.

The Sun was once opposed to printing bad language, to the extent that "tits" would often be spelt "t*ts". This policy has recently been relaxed.

The Sun 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; 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. ^{[citation needed]}

More recently, The Sun labelled many British Members of Parliament as traitors, regardless of their political parties, 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]

More than else, The Sun is passionately and sometimes absurdly anti-European, taking every opportunity to thrash policy that promotes further European integration, often using Napoleonic or WW2 era fighting language.

British tabloids are popularly perceived abroad as offensive and tasteless. Here are some notable examples of The Sun's more controversial headlines:

"Urs hole" British tabloids and English hooligans joined their efforts in harassing Swiss referee Urs Meier after the English lost in the Euro 2004 quarter-final where Meier disallowed an English goal, which would have won the match, 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. The Sun later criticised Chelsea FC manager José Mourinho for intimidating referee Anders Frisk in a Champions League match against FC Barcelona.

"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.

• Graham Dudman (current Managing Editor)
• Sydney Jacobson (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–)

There is also a Scottish edition of The Sun launched in 1987, known as The Scottish Sun. Based in Glasgow, the paper sells for just 15p in Scotland and has now overtaken its Scottish tabloid rival Daily Record. The Scottish Sun is often referred to as "a downmarket, English-based tabloid" by the Record. It duplicates much of the content of the English edition but with additional coverage of Scottish news and sport. In the early 1990s, the Scottish edition became notable as the first major newspaper to declare support for the pro-independence Scottish National Party. At the time the paper elsewhere continued to support the Conservatives, who were then becoming an increasingly marginalised force in Scotland. This stance, however, became somewhat problematic following The Sun's adoption of support for Labour elsewhere in the UK, given that the SNP were seen as Labour's main challengers and fiercest rivals in Scotland. The Scottish edition was forced to employ some convoluted logic to justify its eventual withdrawal of support for the SNP in favour of pro-union Labour.

However, the Scottish Sun had done a major U-turn, by the time of the Scottish Parliament election, 2007, in which its front page featured a hangman's noose in the shape of an SNP logo. "Vote SNP today and you put Scotland's head in the noose" [1] This drew heavy criticism, even from those who opposed the SNP.

Other newspapers published by other companies 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. See List of newspapers in the United Kingdom for a comparison of The Sun with other newspapers.

Note: the sister Sunday paper of The Sun (also published by News Group Newspapers) 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.

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.

The Sun has also been adopted in Nigeria as "The Sun" or the "Daily Sun", With the page-3 girl dubbed "The Sun Girl". The Nigerian counterpart shares the same iconic red and white masthead with the British paper.

• Tabloid ("red top")
• Hold Ye Front Page
• Page Three Girl
• Dear Deidre
• The Premier
• Striker (comic)
• Freddie Starr

• The Sun - 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:

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