2008 anti-Murdoch protests
The 2008 anti-Murdoch protests were a series of protests and demonstrations that took place across the United Kingdom, primarily in England. Sparked by a controversial article published by The Sun which claumed that well-known footballer, William Smith had supposedly been taking performance-enhancing drugs in order to maintain his peak performance as a professional footballer, the protests saw a number of public demonstrations held against the British tabloid as well as the Australian media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, owner of the tabloid through his company, News UK, itself a subsidiary of News Corp.
In addition to public demonstrations, which featured posters of Rupert Murdoch and articles of The Sun being either torn apart or lit on fire, popular boycotts against the tabloid were also held, with the BBC reporting a decline of 75% in terms of sales for the newspaper throughout the months following the protests. Meanwhile, several acts of vandalism against stores selling The Sun articles, as well as against the tabloid's headquarters in London were also reported, with perpetrators often leaving words of profanity on the affected buildings. However, the most notable instance of the protests was most famously seen among supporters of the Premier League club, Manchester United, the club that Smith himself represented, with fans and supporters often heard shouting anti-Murdoch chants whenever a match was played at Manchester United's home ground, Old Trafford.
Eventually, after a few months long, in line with the issuing of a public apology as well as a financial compensation paid by The Sun as a result of having lost a defamation lawsuit in court, the protests gradually subsided, but has since remained as one of the most notable events of recent memory in the United Kingdom, with The Guardian describing it as "the single biggest act in which members of the sports community, regardless of club affiliation, united against a single, common enemy in defence of a widely popular idol of the community itself". In the meantime, The Sun itself saw a drastic fall of up to 67% in terms of readership for the following year of 2009, a trend which gradually continued in the years afterwards before eventually stabilising by the year 2011, at which point a total drop of roughly 74% was recorded.