Changes

In 1979 the paper endorsed Margaret Thatcher in the year's general election, at the
end of a process which had been under way for some time, though The Sun had not
initially been enthusiastic for Thatcher. On 3 May 1979, it ran the unequivocal
front-page headline, "VOTE TORY THIS TIME".[40]

The Daily Star had been launched in 1978 by Express Newspapers, and by 1981 had
begun to affect sales of The Sun. So bingo was introduced as a marketing tool and a
2p drop in cover price removed the Daily Star's competitive advantage opening a new
circulation battle which resulted in The Sun neutralising the threat of the new
paper.[41] The new editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, took up his post in 1981
just after these developments,[42] and "changed the British tabloid concept more
profoundly than [Larry] Lamb did", according to Bruce Page; under MacKenzie[41] the
paper became "more outrageous, opinionated and irreverent than anything ever
produced in Britain".[43]he Sun became an ardent supporter of the Falklands War.
The coverage "captured the zeitgeist", according to Roy Greenslade, assistant
editor at the time (though privately an opponent of the war), but was also
"xenophobic, bloody-minded, ruthless, often reckless, black-humoured and ultimately
triumphalist."[45]

On 1 May, The Sun claimed to have "sponsored" a British missile. Under the headline
"Stick This Up Your Junta: A Sun missile for Galtieri�s gauchos",[46] the newspaper
published a photograph of a missile (actually a Polaris missile stock shot from the
Ministry of Defence) which had a large Sun logo printed on its side with the
caption "Here It Comes, Senors..." underneath.[45][47] The paper explained that it
was "sponsoring" the missile by contributing to the eventual victory party on HMS
Invincible when the war ended. In copy written by Wendy Henry, the paper said that
the missile would shortly be used against Argentinian forces. Tony Snow, The Sun
journalist on Invincible who had "signed" the missile, reported a few days later
that it had hit an Argentinian target.[45][47]

One of the paper's best known front pages, published on 4 May 1982, commemorated
the torpedoing of the Argentine ship the General Belgrano by running the story
under the headline "GOTCHA".[48] At MacKenzie's insistence, and against the wishes
of Murdoch (the mogul was present because almost all the journalists were on
strike),[49] the headline was changed for later editions after the extent of
Argentinian casualties became known.[44][50] John Shirley, a reporter for The
Sunday Times, witnessed copies of this edition of The Sun being thrown overboard by
sailors and marines on HMS Fearless.[49]

After HMS Sheffield was wrecked by an Argentinian attack, The Sun was heavily
criticised and even mocked for its coverage of the war in The Daily Mirror and The
Guardian, and the wider media queried the veracity of official information and
worried about the number of casualties, The Sun gave its response. "There are
traitors in our midst", wrote leader writer Ronald Spark on 7 May, accusing
commentators on Daily Mirror and The Guardian, plus the BBC's defence correspondent
Peter Snow, of "treason" for aspects of their coverage.[51]

The satirical magazine Private Eye mocked and lampooned what they regarded as the
paper's jingoistic coverage, most memorably with the mock-Sun headline "KILL AN
ARGIE, WIN A METRO!", to which MacKenzie is said to have jokingly responded, "Why
didn't we think of that?"[45]

The Sun and the Labour Party