56 Facts About Kelvin MacKenzie

Kelvin Calder MacKenzie was born on 22 October 1946 and is an English media executive and a former newspaper editor.

Kelvin MacKenzie became editor of The Sun in 1981, by which time the publication had been established as Britain's largest-circulation newspaper.

Kelvin MacKenzie's contract was terminated by mutual consent in May 2017, after he was suspended for comparing footballer Ross Barkley to a gorilla.

Kelvin MacKenzie was born in Thanet, Kent, to Ian and Mary Kelvin MacKenzie, both journalists working for The South London Observer.

Kelvin MacKenzie joined the South East London Mercury at 17 and, for the next ten years, worked on local and then national newspapers, including the Daily Express.

Kelvin MacKenzie has said that, early in his career, he discovered that he had little writing ability and that his talents lay in making up headlines and laying out pages.

Conflict between the two mastheads meant that Kelvin MacKenzie performed both jobs for a time.

Kelvin MacKenzie cemented the paper's image as a right-wing tabloid, not only increasing its profile, but making it known for attacks on left-wing political figures and movements, and its sensationalist front-page celebrity exposes.

Kelvin MacKenzie himself stated that he felt his own spell as editor of The Sun had a "positively downhill impact on journalism".

Kelvin MacKenzie was responsible for the "Gotcha" front-page headline of 4 May 1982, which reported the contentious sinking of the Argentinian cruiser General Belgrano by a British submarine during the Falklands War.

Kelvin MacKenzie was responsible for the "Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster" front-page headline.

At one point, Kelvin MacKenzie prepared a front page with the headline "Mine Fuhrer" and a photograph of Scargill with his arm in the air, a pose giving the appearance of him making a Nazi salute.

At the time of the 1987 general election, Kelvin MacKenzie ran a mock-editorial entitled "Why I'm Backing Kinnock, by Joseph Stalin".

Shortly afterwards, Kelvin MacKenzie published another entirely false allegation that the singer had had the voice boxes of his guard dogs removed because their barking kept him awake at night.

Shortly after publication, Kelvin MacKenzie confirmed the inaccuracy of that story by sending a reporter to the singer's house, who quickly discovered that all of Elton John's guard dogs were quite capable of barking.

Kelvin MacKenzie later said that he found it difficult to understand why he had believed, let alone published, the claims about the guard dogs, which he later realised were absurd.

Kelvin MacKenzie said on the programme: "It was my decision and my decision alone to do that front page in that way and I made a rather serious error".

For years, Kelvin MacKenzie maintained that his "only mistake was to believe a Tory MP".

In January 1994, Kelvin MacKenzie moved to BSkyB, another of Murdoch's News Corporation assets, but left after a few months.

Kelvin MacKenzie clashed with MacKenzie over programme content and soon left, leaving him in sole charge.

Kelvin MacKenzie took a radically different approach to that of his predecessor and produced cheap, down-market programming.

Kelvin MacKenzie introduced features such as nightly editions of "Topless Darts", "The Weather in Norwegian" and other weather forecasts featuring dwarfs bouncing on trampolines.

In June 2005, the takeover proceeded, with Kelvin MacKenzie being replaced by UTV executive Scott Taunton.

Kelvin MacKenzie spent a year as chairman of one of the UK's largest marketing and communications groups, Media Square plc.

That was unsuccessful and Kelvin MacKenzie left a year later, in March 2007.

In March 2006, Kelvin MacKenzie joined BBC Radio 5 Live as a presenter.

Kelvin MacKenzie made his debut on the station over the summer, presenting a series of programmes telling the story of various scandals which have occurred at FIFA World Cup tournaments over the years.

Kelvin MacKenzie then presented a retrospective look at the year gone by on Christmas Day.

In May 2006, Kelvin MacKenzie returned to The Sun as a columnist, and was accused of using one of his articles to attack the people of Scotland.

In December 2016, during a civil court case, it emerged that Kelvin MacKenzie had left The Sun because Rebekah Brooks, then head of News International, and Dominic Mohan, then editor of The Sun, had not told him of the extent of the company's phone hacking scandal.

Kelvin MacKenzie was concerned about their employment of Jeremy Clarkson whose privacy injunction against his ex-wife was then in force.

Kelvin MacKenzie was an early investor in online video company Base79, established in 2007 by his son Ashley Kelvin MacKenzie.

In 2011, Kelvin MacKenzie launched the online TV channel Sports Tonight, describing the channel as "Sky Sports News meets TalkSport".

Kelvin MacKenzie joined The Daily Telegraph as an online columnist in 2013, but he was dropped by the newspaper after one column, with Roy Greenslade reporting in The Guardian that he was let go because staff on the Telegraph sports desk were annoyed about his role in the false reporting on the Hillsborough disaster, in particular, football columnist and ex-Liverpool player Alan Hansen, who had played at Hillsborough.

The claim was brought by an NHS doctor, Antonio Serrano, who Kelvin MacKenzie had criticised in an article.

In October 2014, Kelvin MacKenzie was a contestant on gameshow Pointless Celebrities.

In December 2014, The Sun announced that Kelvin MacKenzie would make a second return to the newspaper as a columnist.

In 2003, he presented a documentary, Kelvin MacKenzie Saves the Tories, in which he proposed a low-tax, anti-BBC, and cautiously pro-capital punishment manifesto for the party.

However, in February 2008, in a Sun newspaper article, Kelvin MacKenzie wrote that he was against the return of the death penalty.

In May 2008, Kelvin MacKenzie stood for election as a local councillor in Elmbridge.

Kelvin MacKenzie lost the election, gaining 227 votes, whereas the Conservative incumbent, Glenn Dearlove, won 679.

Kelvin MacKenzie went on to compare Merseysiders with animal rights activists.

Kelvin MacKenzie refused to comment publicly on the controversy and pulled out of a scheduled appearance on BBC television's Question Time later that week.

In February 2007, Independent journalist Matthew Norman claimed that Kelvin MacKenzie was considering issuing a public apology for his coverage of the Hillsborough disaster, although at the time he was "still unsure" as to whether to do so.

On 12 September 2012, following the publication of the official report into the disaster using previously withheld government papers which has exonerated the Liverpool fans present at the match, Kelvin MacKenzie issued the following statement:.

Nine complaints were received by Ofcom asserting Kelvin MacKenzie's privacy had been invaded, but in its adjudication, the regulator rejected the application.

In July 2006, Kelvin MacKenzie wrote a column for The Sun referring to Scots as "Tartan Tosspots" and apparently rejoicing in the fact that Scotland has a lower life expectancy than the rest of the United Kingdom.

Kelvin MacKenzie's column provoked a storm of protest and was heavily condemned by numerous commentators including Scottish MPs and MSPs.

On 11 October 2007, Kelvin MacKenzie appeared on the BBC's Question Time TV programme and launched another attack on Scotland.

The comments came as part of criticism of prime minister Gordon Brown, whom Kelvin MacKenzie said could not be trusted to manage the British economy because he was "a socialist Scot", and stating that this was relevant to the debate.

The BBC received around 200 complaints and Kelvin MacKenzie's comments drew widespread criticism, including comments from the Scottish entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne who responded on BBC Radio 5 Live:.

On 13 January 2012, Kelvin MacKenzie appeared on the BBC's Question Time and remarked on the move for Scottish independence:.

In July 2016, after the Nice truck attack, Kelvin MacKenzie wrote an article for The Sun in which he queried whether it was appropriate for Channel 4 News presenter Fatima Manji to read the news wearing a hijab.

Manji accused Kelvin MacKenzie of attempting to "intimidate Muslims out of public life" and attempting to smear 1.6 billion Muslims in suggesting they are inherently violent.

The IPSO ruled in October 2016 that Kelvin MacKenzie was "entitled" to make his comments, and a "prejudicial or pejorative reference" to Manji's religion was not present in the article.

In December 2020, Kelvin MacKenzie tweeted that the Irish love the Germans and did not fight to save Jewish people in World War II.