The Sun newspaper has run two front pages this week attacking comedian and political activist Russell Brand, but is it really controlling the public debate anymore?
The Sun sells 1.9m newspapers a day, according to the latest ABC figures from November. This is considerably more than the 48,000 copies Brand’s latest book Revolution had sold up to November 22, according to Nielsen.
However, Brand dwarfs the paper’s reach on the majority of the world’s favourite social media sites. He has 8.6m Twitter followers, which is 132 times more than the Sun. He also has 1.2m more Facebook followers.
While the Sun’s most viewed video on YouTube “Page 3: the women you’d love your woman to be like” got 4.5m views, Brand took 5.7m for his interview of the Westboro Baptist Church.
In terms of regular viewers, the comedian has nearly 10 times more subscribers to his channel, where he hosts his video series “The Trews”, than the Sun.
On Wednesday, it accused Brand of being a hypocrite for campaigning on housing issues when, according to the paper, he pays rent for his home to a firm in the British Virgin Islands which is usually viewed as a tax haven. This led the comedian to suggest he would take legal action.
The front page of today’s paper features a poll showing the majority of the British public agree with them that Brand is a hypocrite.
Front page exclusive - Britain backs The Sun for branding gobby Russell Brand a hypocrite: http://t.co/q6F6cKRBcD pic.twitter.com/ogMU2oRsOH
— The Sun (@TheSunNewspaper) December 5, 2014
However, the figures illustrate just how far we have come from traditional newspapers such as the Sun controlling the debate.
In the aftermath of the first front page, some Twitter users adopted the #TheSunLogic to respond and mock the paper’s stance on Brand’s rent arrangements and wealth, including Guardian columnist Owen Jones.
Stop talking about combatting starvation - you have a fridge full of food! Hypocrite! #TheSunLogic
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) December 3, 2014
You're a medical doctor operating to remove a tumour? But you've never even had cancer yourself! #Hypocrite #TheSunLogic
— Context (@Context__) December 3, 2014
"In other news Robin Hood's tights were quite expensive" by Matt Morgan #TheSunLogic
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) December 3, 2014
