Monday 20 February 2012

OPINION: Sun on Sunday

So Rupert Murdoch can't wait any longer. He's announced that this coming weekend will see the launch of his new Sunday tabloid, the Sun on Sunday.


Even before News International took the decision to close the News of the World last year, there were rumours that it would be replaced with a Sunday version of the Sun, the popular weekday and Saturday tabloid which Rupert Murdoch has owned for more than forty years.

But surely this is too soon?

Surely with all those who have been horrified by the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World, and with more recent allegations and arrests linked to The Sun, people aren't going to buy this new red top?

Sadly, I expect they will.

Earlier today I heard a woman on the radio saying she'd buy the Sun on Sunday because her weekend had been lacking the fun that the News of the World used to supply. That's a shocking admission of how superficial and mind numbing her existence must be. Someone else said they hoped the new title would do some if the campaigning journalism that the News of the World had done. I presume they meant like the anti-pedophile campaign that saw vigilante groups attack paediatricians - I guess because many of the readers of the News of the World had such low IQs and reading abilities.

Sadly, I fully expect those same thickies will ignore that News International is behind the Sun on Sunday, and will ignore the fact that many former News of the World journalists now work for The Sun and Sun on Sunday.

More tragically, I suspect advertisers will flock to the new title and not realise they are tainting their own brand by association with a business that is, it seems, institutionally corrupt.

I hope the Sun on Sunday fails. I hope, soon, that Murdoch and his son and various other senior execs and journalists get their day in court and their time in prison. I fear they'll get away with it and the pathetic and idiotic British public will buy the Sun on Sunday in their millions.

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