The Sun

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This article is about the British tabloid newspaper, not to be confused with the real Sun, which does actually serve some useful function beyond impromptu toilet paper and porn for cowards.
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The Sun is a British newspaper tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International empire. Despite Due to being full of lies, damned lies, and topless women, it is Britain's most popular newspaper. It is aggressively nationalistic and currently supports the Conservative Party, after switching its support from the Labour Party in 2009.[1] It's not entirely clear if this flip-flopping with political support means that UK elections are decided based on who The Sun supports, or whether it supports whoever is in power and then (after the fashion of the Vicar of Bray) changes its opinion when the political tide naturally turns. It notably does not particularly support David Cameron, which has absolutely nothing to do with Murdoch blaming him for the Leveson Inquiry.

It is completely vile - although people do tend to take it far less seriously than, say, The Daily Mail. A Sunday version, The Sun on Sunday, was created to fill the gap left by the demise of the News of the World.

Contents

[edit] Boobies

So, Rupert Murdoch is considering axing Page 3 of The Sun. He should axe pages 1-2 and 4-76 while he's at it.

Perhaps the most famous feature of The Sun is the infamous "Page 3", which has invariably been the source of all teenage fascination with breasts since 1970. Each page 3 of The Sun features a topless model, usually taking up the vast majority of the page.

Don't believe us? Okay then...

The term "Page 3" and "Page Three" have been trademarked by the tabloid, although very similar features have cropped up in other red-top tabloids. In an attempt to see just how stupid their readers actually are, Page 3 now routinely runs a single paragraph opinion piece on a news story of the day next to the picture of the topless model, purporting to be her thoughts.

In 2006, The Sun - as well as other "lads mags" - was banned from being sold in Salvation Army run shops. This was due to the concept of Page 3 being against the Christian ethos of the Salvation Army, but many troops interviewed about the subject seemed fairly ignorant of these motivations, thinking that it was banned just to piss them off.[2] In 2010, the UK government banned advertising for glamour models, including Page 3 girls, in government-run JobCentres, mostly as part of a crackdown on promoting the sex industry, including lap-dancing and prostitution. Naturally, The Sun was pretty pissed off about this.[3]

[edit] PR Stunt

For 3 days before 22nd of January 2015 The Sun quietly replaced the bare boobs with half naked women (so still objectifying them) that didn't have their boobs showing. The news gave them a lot of attention, then after 3 days they pulled it back. naturally everyone then realised it was just a PR stunt.[4] Naturally the people campaining for it to be over were pretty annoyed and got 13000 signitures in the first few hours of the news.

[edit] Damned lies!

Never before has the line between light-hearted jibes and hardcore xenophobia been so blurred.

In 2010, in the run-up to the Football World Cup, The Sun was responsible for a rumour (which spawned numerous annoying Facebook groups to protest[5]) that England football shirts were to be banned in a case of "political correctness gone wrong." Obviously, this being The Sun the story had little basis in fact beyond the phrase "pubs aren't obliged to follow these guidelines." In reality, it was merely a guideline about crime prevention that included a dress code, among other things.[6][7]

This sort of less than factual reporting isn't new. The Sun was especially well known in its 1980s heyday of producing such gem-like headlines as "FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER" and "STRAIGHT SEX CANNOT GIVE YOU AIDS."

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

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