Murdoch's head on a mockup of the poster
for the 1976 remake of King Kong,
with a headline appropriate for his style of newspaper
November 20, 1976: New York newspapering changes forever. Rupert Murdoch, a brash right-wing Australian who had already changed British media with national newspaper The Sun, buys the New York Post. He turns it from what it was, a hard-hitting paper favored by liberal intellectuals, especially Jewish ones, into a conservative rag that cares a lot for flashy headlines and not a damn for journalistic accuracy and ethics.
Murdoch uses the Post to slam the City's liberals, the State's liberals, and the country's liberals, for allowing crime to go unchecked, for allowing government spending to go unchecked. You know, the usual right-wing bullshit.
The City's other major tabloid that survived the big newspaper closings of the 1960s was the Daily News. (The words "New York" have never been in the official title, but their masthead has called them "New York's Picture Newspaper" and "New York's Hometown Paper.") It had previously been a populist conservative paper, due to its roots as having been a part of the Chicago Tribune Company. But with the Post taking a rightward turn, the News realized it needed to shift and fill the Post's former void, and they became a left-populist paper -- not Communist, or even socialist, but definitely liberal.
Murdoch's sensationalism, which he had perfected in his native country and then in Britain, was brought to the Post, including the infamous, and sometimes even correct, Page Six gossip page. The paper's huge, salacious headlines brought its circulation to unheard-of levels. The Daily News was forced to fight fire with fire. The Son of Sam, a serial killer who had already struck twice, would continue to kill, and this drove both papers' circulation to higher points than they'd had in years. On April 15, 1983, the Post outdid itself with its most famous headline.
In 1993, Murdoch folded the Post into his larger News Corp., which would include Fox News Channel. In the 21st Century, the Post finally exceeded the Daily News in circulation -- partly due to the News' ideological steps away from liberal populism, often pandering to the George W. Bush Administration, and its publisher Mortimer Zuckerman's longstanding friendship with another broadcast tycoon, Michael Bloomberg, whom Zuckerman's support, and Murdoch's, helped make Bloomberg Mayor for 3 terms, resulting in a serious decline for the City. By the time he left office at the end of 2013, Bloomberg was one of the most unpopular Mayors in City history.
The Post's circulation has not, however, exceeded that of The New York Times.
*
November 20, 1976 was a Saturday. Olympic Gold Medal-winning gymnast Dominique Dawes was born. This was also the day the 1st Rocky film premiered, and baseball pitcher Wayne Garland received a contract he couldn't live up to. I have separate entries for those events.
Baseball was out of season. There were college football games played that day, including some major rivalries:
* Rivalry: Number 3 University of Southern California beat Number 2 University of California at Los Angeles. USC beat UCLA, 24-14 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and clinched the Pacific-Eight Conference title.
* Rivalry: Number 4 Michigan beat Number 8 Ohio State, 22-0 at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, clinching the Big Ten Conference title. Michigan lost the Rose Bowl to USC. Ohio State settled for the Orange Bowl.
* Rivalry: Number 6 Maryland beat Virginia, 28-0 at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia, clinching the Atlantic Coast Conference title.
* Rivalry: Number 7 Oklahoma and Number 10 Nebraska had the week off, preparing for each other. Oklahoma won, 20-17 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. But this was a rare year in this era in which neither of them won the Big Eight Conference Championship.
* Number 9 Houston upset Number 5 Texas Tech, 27-19 at Jones Stadium in Lubbock, clinching the Southwest Conference title. Houston beat Maryland in the Cotton Bowl.
* Number 13 Notre Dame beat the University of Miami, 40-27 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.
* Number 15 Colorado beat Kansas State, 35-28 at KSU Stadium (now Bill Snyder Family Stadium) in Manhattan, Kansas, clinching the Big Eight title. Colorado lost the Orange Bowl to Ohio State.
* Number 16 Oklahoma State beat Number 14 Iowa State, 42-21 at Lewis Field (now T. Boone Pickens Stadium) in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
* Rivalry: Number 19 Missouri were upset by Kansas, 41-14 at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri.
* The University of Pittsburgh, ranked Number 1, had the week off. The following Friday night, they beat Penn State, and then won the National Championship by beating Southeastern Conference Champion Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.
* Rivalry: Villanova beat Temple, 24-7 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.
* Rivalry: Kentucky beat Tennessee, 7-0 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.
* Rivalry: North Carolina beat Duke in a wild one, 39-38 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
* Rivalry: Clemson beat South Carolina, 28-9 at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina.
* Rivalry: Mississippi State beat Mississippi (Ole Miss), 28-11 at Memorial Stadium in Jackson, Mississippi.
* Rivalry: Louisiana State (LSU) beat Tulane, 17-7 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
* Rivalry: Indiana beat Purdue, 20-14 at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana.
* Rivalry: Illinois beat Northwestern, 48-6 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois.
* Rivalry: Wisconsin beat Minnesota, 26-17 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.
* Rivalry: Brigham Young beat Utah, 34-12 at Rice Stadium (now Rice-Eccles Stadium) in Salt Lake City.
* Rivalry: Stanford beat the University of California, 27-24 at California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley.
* Rivalry: Oregon beat Oregon State, 23-14 at Parker Stadium (now Reser Stadium) in Corvallis, Oregon.
* Rivalry: Washington beat Washington State, 51-32 at Martin Stadium in Pullman, Washington.
* Air Force beat Wyoming, 41-21 at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Army and Navy both had the week off, preparing for each other the following Saturday, at John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. Navy won, 38-10.
In New Jersey, Princeton had already finished their season, at 2-7. Rutgers were off. Five days later, on Thanksgiving Day, beat Colgate at Giants Stadium, 17-9, to clinch an undefeated regular season, 11-0. But they were not invited to a bowl game.
There were 6 games played in the NBA that day:
* The New York Knicks beat the Denver Nuggets, 120-115 at Madison Square Garden. David Thompson scored 35 points in defeat.
* The Washington Bullets beat the San Antonio Spurs, 109-103 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 123-106 at The Omni in Atlanta.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Boston Celtics, 116-110 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. Bob Lanier scored 40 points.
* The Houston Rockets beat the Kansas City Kings, 127-126 in overtime at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")
* The Golden State Warriors beat the Buffalo Braves, 130-93 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.
There were 4 games played in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers lost to the St. Louis Blues, 3-1 at the St. Louis Arena.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Minnesota North Stars, 8-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Darryl Sittler, Jack Valiquette, and Dave "Tiger" Williams each had 2 goals for the Leafs.
* The Colorado Rockies beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.
* And the Buffalo Sabres beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
And there were 3 games in the World Hockey Association:
* The New England Whalers and the Minnesota Fighting Saints played to a tie, 3-3 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).
* The Indianapolis Racers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 8-4 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
* And the Houston Aeros beat the Phoenix Roadrunners, 5-2 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.
And in English soccer, Arsenal and Liverpool played to a 1-1 draw at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London.
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