May 16 – Britain’s biggest selling daily newspaper the Sun has dropped its former editor Kelvin MacKenzie, now an outspoken columnist, over an article he wrote likening Everton midfielder Ross Barkley, an England international, to a gorilla.
MacKenzie’s contract with the Sun has been “terminated by mutual consent”, according to the paper’s publisher News UK, part of News Corp which is run by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
MacKenzie’s column on April 14 led to an apology and the publishers say he, “will not return” to the Sun after initially suspending him.
A News UK spokeswoman said: “Further to our statement on 15 April that Kelvin MacKenzie’s services as a columnist for the Sun were suspended, we can confirm that Mr MacKenzie’s column will not return to the Sun and his contract with News Group Newspapers has been terminated by mutual consent.”
The article featured a photograph of a gorilla’s eyes below a close-up of Barkley, whose grandfather was born in Nigeria.
MacKenzie, one of the most controversial media commentators in England who has never been afraid to speak his mind, wrote: “Perhaps unfairly, I have always judged Ross Barkley as one of our dimmest footballers. There is something about the lack of reflection in his eyes which makes me certain not only are the lights not on, there is definitely nobody at home. I get a similar feeling when seeing a gorilla at the zoo. The physique is magnificent but it’s the eyes that tell the story.”
MacKenzie is perhaps best known for being editor of the Sun when it caused national outrage by claiming Liverpool fans were to blame for the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 when 96 fans died. The newspaper is still boycotted by many in the city.
On his departure from The Sun, MacKenzie said he would “refuse to allow this latest controversy to cast a shadow over the decades of great times I have had. There are plenty of opportunities out there.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734975246labto1734975246ofdlr1734975246owedi1734975246sni@w1734975246ahsra1734975246w.wer1734975246dna1734975246