The power of The Sun
Does The Sun wield too much power? Harriet Harman mocked it for its political analysis... a union leader ripped up a copy at the Labour conference - it's still boycotted by many Liverpudlians after Hillsbrough.
Tony Blair courted its owner and there was delight in the party when it backed Labour.... Now David Cameron's been dined by Rupert Murdoch and the paper's backing the Tories again.
So does the Sun wield too much power?
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Tony Woodley tearing up a copy of the Sun said more about him than the Sun.
Tony has said nothing about the decimation of the native working class under NuLabour!
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The Sun follows its readers. It's in the market of mass circulation. Harriet Harman would do better with the FT for political analysis.
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I don't remember the BBC raising or being concerned with this issue when the Sun supported the BBC's Labour party.
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I don't read The Sun, but compared to this Labour government?.....it must be a brilliant read! Labour still clinging by thier fingertips and despite even if we had this newspaper or not, Labour will still be gone by this time next year. A spent useless force that continues to re-hash old ideas and talks a lot but does nothing.
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It is all about ego's!!! Politicans believe they are bigger than the rest of us and Murdock thinks he rules the world. Have not bought a daily national paper for years and I can make up my own mind about politics.
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Oh the irony! Alistair Campbell chastising the BBC for falling for The Sun's output! There is karma.
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If, as ministers continue to protest, The Sun doesn't wield any influence - why are they sooooooooooo obsessed/worried about it?
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When the Sun took it upon themselves to condemn Liverpool fans it was the people of Liverpool that taught the sun who has the real power. The TUC should organise a one day campaign when no union member, member of the labour party or voter (or maybe people who just don't like the Sun telling them what to think and do) not to buy the Sun on Monday. It would be interesting to see what a strong response will do to the suns support of the Tories
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The currant bun? Don't believe that this paper holds any influence - what proportion of the readership actually makes it out of the pub to vote????? Nicky finally has his 'Red Top' moment - angling for column Mr (N) Campbell????
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Comment no. 8: And if The Sun had come out in favour of New Labour would you advocate the same thing?
Do you disapprove of The Mirror and Guardian? Their raison d'etre is common knowledge.
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This brave new world of the BBC's of blog interaction has started off with a whimper, 9 posts relating to the 5 lives star topic hardly the boast of Brett Spencer when he said....." 5 live Now makes the whole network more responsive to listener comment and puts your views closer to producers and presenters - for use on-air and on the web site. We'll pull together online comment, contributions from social networks, texts and emails and feed them directly to programme editors and the radio station as a whole. Your contributions will also be much more visible on the new site. 5 live Now will operate in real-time and give more prominence to the contributions selected. "
Or perhaps the problem is that people aren't much interested in the BBC's chosen topic!
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Nellysmydogsname wrote:
The currant bun? Don't believe that this paper holds any influence - what proportion of the readership actually makes it out of the pub to vote????? Nicky finally has his 'Red Top' moment - angling for column Mr (N) Campbell????
You're right old chap, it's cheap....that's why the hoi polloi "read it" somewhat cheaper than toilet paper.
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People read toilet paper?
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The usual tiresome, cruel, personal, character assassination by The Sun desperate to show that it's waning circulation has some influence with an orchestrated self publicity campaign.
Propaganda so rich that the Morning Star would be proud of it.
People are far more intelligent in making up their own minds without the Murdoch press and it's agenda. ' In the gutter ' journalism of the worst kind.
Even if they did back Blair,I couldn't have cared less.
This whole episode will backfire on Murdoch.
Even Trevor Kavanagh sounds as though he is just following oders.
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"The usual tiresome, cruel, personal, character assassination by The Sun"
A Labour supporter is hardly in the position to decry that, not when you examine Labours record of cruel, personal, character assassination.
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Do we have to put up with this for another year? Heaven help us.
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Err,,, I'm not a Labour supporter I'm afraid i moore.
I'm one of it's worst critics but nice try.
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Err,,, I'm not a Labour supporter I'm afraid.
Well your comments have more than a passing similarity to Labour party propaganda.
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A ten point plan to the perfect authoritarian state;
1. Install unelected leader.
2. Invent a enemy, instill fear, go to war.
3. Deny people their right to vote.
4. Introduce Draconian laws.
5. Introduce repressive surveillance.
6. Lockup opposition leaders.
7. Destroy literature.
Tony Woodley has now achieved number 7 there are only three more to go for Gordo's New New Labour.
I do not fear The Sun because I choose not to buy it. I am very afraid of NNL. History has shown us that absolute power corrupts absolutely - EVERY TIME!
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Reply to number 8 from number 4 (I feel like I am staring in the Prisoner). Yes I disapprove of all news media who try to generate news or manipulate public opinion rather than report the news. Over the years I have witnessed an increasing amount of editorial comments which have moved from the appropriate part of a newspaper to the main body of the publication. I believe this is a bad development whether it is pro labour or conservative.
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Sarnia wrote:
People read toilet paper?
Aaah....touche Sarnia , to quote Watterson - “If life is just a stage, then we are all running around ad-libbing, with absolutely no clue what the plot is. Maybe that's why we don't know whether it's a comedy or tragedy." 0)
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More hypocrisy from Labour. I don't remember too much wailing from them in 1997, 2001 and 2005 when Murdoch backed Blair.
Fortunately I don't need a rag like The S*N to make my mind up. Anyone with two brain cells can see what a mess Labour have made of their 12 year tenure.
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I think it would be really funny if the elecrate defied them and voted Labour. That would get rid of their cynical attitude.
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23. Cheapjack
"I think it would be really funny if the electorate defied them and voted Labour."
Do people really vote the way newspapers tell them? A truly depressing thought.
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Wasn't it the Sun who said 'It was the Sun who won it!' in 1992?
You're a bit naive, methinks.
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14. Leonard-Zelig
"...The usual tiresome, cruel, personal, character assassination by The Sun..."
Different to The Mirror on Hague? http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1375000/images/_1377516_mirror9may150.jpg
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"Does The Sun wield too much power?"
Given that it has a circulation around the three million mark and an estimated readership of eight to nine million which, assuming they're all adults, is getting on for a quarter, maybe a bit more, of the electorate, and given that the stereotypical Sun reader is "outraged in Dorking" on the back of tabloid hysteria and thus easily led, it's a fair bet to say they wield some power to influence the inclinations at the ballot box. Whether it's enough to make a difference on polling day, however, is an entirely different question.
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"I am very afraid of NL."
A recent popular movie includes the line, "Governments should be afraid of their people, the people shouldn't be afraid of their governments."!
Mildly prophetic, considering.
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"Anyone with two brain cells can see what a mess Labour have made of their 12 year tenure."
Yes but the average Sun reader has one - and has to time-share that with someone else!
;-)
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The Sun is only powerful in its own mind in my view. It allegedly follows the crowd and shouts in its headlines - we led said crowd and voted in this or that Government. Remember someone predicting lottery numbers a while back? After lottery had been drawn? Right!
I gave a story away years ago now and gave no thought whatsoever to that newspaper. S
Sorry Sun readers but you are welcome to its - in my opinions - rather fluidic views on stuff. When stories are brokered for example and it is brokered through their pages.
It is not alone in the British print media in that respect either - so I shouldn't be too harsh on one newspaper.
Subject: it will be game back on
Anagram: Woe - bet blackmailing
I repeat. I gave that story away. Four years ago now. They lost that bet.
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Only in the Sun.....pocryphal or not?http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2654252/Michael-Jackson-hailed-Hitler-in-taped-interview-as-a-genius.html
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All I could say after reading the following was hmm.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/how-cameron-cosied-up-to-murdoch--son-1795742.html
Who are these personages? As I mention elsewhere - we - in the United Kingdom - attempts by the unelected - mostly in the Media or Public Relation - seem to want to run us all - allegedly. And the Government do not escape the same - alleged censure.
Subject: straight home - straight home
Anagram: shame to right - rights MO - hate
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Labour should not underestimate The Sun and its stablemates - the conference comments were vindictive and ill-advised
They have the best part of 9 months with the Sun etc rubbishing them every day
Maybe Labour should have thought more carefully before picking a fight
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33. MarinSolitaire
"…Maybe Labour should have thought more carefully before picking a fight…"
A fight also picked with Sky and the BBC. Is this a coincidence or part of an 'underdog' plan?
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Brown has more than the Sun to worry about as Flight Lieutenant Victoria Anderton has joined his critics. For after a speech from General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan she stood up and said that after listening to him she now had more confidence in the chain of command than when Gordon Brown spoke there a few weeks ago.
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The Sun is the most despicable of the daily rags. Read the Morning Star for a real balanced view of British politics.
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the sun, the only reason for the upset is that murdoch has been so useful in promoting lies and deceits , so now its the turn of the tories to take advantage ..
and what did brown mean by 'afghanisation', isnt afghansitan not already afghanised , does it really take an invading fighting force to bring identity to the afghan people?
and of course nothing has changed since the start of the invasion, the afghans (also known as taliban) didnt want us then and dont want us now.
still apparently the taliban who have never used terrorism as a tool on foreign soil are being prevented in doing so by our forces, even frank gardner acknowledges that alqaeda is a spent force as far as afghanistan is concerned.
so the big lie continues.
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"General Stanley McChrystal"
thats his job, to convince people of the 'just cause' even when its dishonest.
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Anyone would think judging by the amount of time the BBC has alloted to this story about The Sun ditching Labour to support the Tories that the organisation was the mouthpiece of The Sun or indeed Rupert Murdoch himself!
The truth is that The Sun never converted to New Labour in 1997 but rather New Labour converted to The Sun and all its Tory principles. This enabled the likes of Murdoch to claim the paper was no longer wedded to the Tories but only because New Labour had embraced Tory policies.
Now of course with those Tory free market policies in turmoil as they were under the official Tory government the Sun merely converts back blaming Labour for everything.
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Good post, Nick, and absolutely true!
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The Sun have backed Thatcher and Blair. Their backing for Cameron makes me more likely to vote Labour.
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One only has to read left wing journals (the type that don't rely on advertising to exist but by readers subscriptions) to realise how dominant the right wing press are and how they control and sustain millions of peoples opinions! Is it any wonder that these established papers are never subject to VAT!
Every day 5 Live (usually the Drive Programme or Up all night) pull in an editor or sub-editor of a leading title to tell us all how his/her wonderful paper is covering events. I notice that dreadful Tory squirt Andrew Pearce of the Daily Telegraph is regularly on, Kavanagh of the Sun,McGuire of the Mirror and occasionally someone from the Indy or Guardian.
What about someone from the Morning Star, Socialist Worker, WRP or a BNP paper just to change the same old record these regulars, supposedly competing with each other, always come out with!
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