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Profile: Kelvin MacKenzie

Kelvin MacKenzie

13/05/2017

BBC Radio 4 - Profile, Kelvin MacKenzie

Becky Milligan profiles the former editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie.

Kelvin MacKenzie has had a successful but controversial career as columnist and editor of The Sun newspaper. He's seen by many as an arrogant bully - but is there a softer side?

Former editor and columnist of The Sun Kelvin MacKenzie is to leave the paper after comparing Everton footballer Ross Barkley to a gorilla. It's not the first time MacKenzie has attracted controversy. In 1989, under his editorship, The Sun published a story claiming that Liverpool fans urinated on police, pick-pocketed the dead and prevented policemen giving the kiss of life to some of the victims at Hillsborough. It proved to be, as the paper later admitted, the "most terrible blunder" in The Sun's history and one for which Kelvin Mackenzie would be personally blamed. There have been allegations of bullying in the workplace and humiliating colleagues. But, as Becky Milligan hears, he's also considered to be a brilliant editor with an instinct for knowing exactly what his readers want. So is there a softer, more sensitive side to the abrasive newspaper man?

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