The Oldie

OLDEN LIFE

WHO WAS Blackie the donkey?

Britain’s tabloid newspapers are a shadow of what they used to be, struggling to compete with online behemoths like Facebook and Twitter.

Back in the 1980s it was a different story. Rupert Murdoch had tamed the print unions, new technology had cut printing costs, and so ‘red top’ and the could afford to splash their cash on spectacular stunts. And the greatest stunt of all was their dramatic rescue of Blackie the donkey.

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