Is Rupert Murdoch is the most divisive figure in the history of the UK newspaper industry?

Divisive - adjective meaning "having a quality which divides or separates".

Murdoch is a well-known figure in the UK newspaper industry, or at least he's the first person who I think of as a personality in the UK newspaper industry. His being well known is a result of his influential stance in the newspaper industry.
To give this some sense of perspective he's the owner of the Sun - the newspaper with the highest average daily readership in the UK (7,986,000). These readers are 'swing voters' and the Sun is influential over them. More on that later. Rupert Murdoch is the founder, chairman and CEO of NewsCorp: a media conglomerate with net assets of $53 billion. Rupert Murdoch's own net worth is estimated at $4 billion.

Here are some of famous spats which Mr. Murdoch has taken part in:

Murdoch versus Google
Recently Murdoch tried to block Google News from using clips from his websites. This comes as he tries to monetize his internet news-outlets. I first heard about it from a tweet "Angry old man doesn't understand the internet".

Murdoch versus ZaNuLiebore
The Sun with it's huge readership switched allegiances from supporting Labour to supporting the Conservatives after the Labour Party Conference. They also drove up and down Brighton beach in lorries with placards saying "Don't you know there's a war on?" in front of pictures of dead servicemen. The lorries weren't picked up by the rest of the media, however Murdoch's new support of the Tories caused Labour to denounce him as a crook. Which leads me neatly on to my next story...

Murdoch versus Tax
To be fair this wasn't actually Murdoch's doing, it was NewsCorp, but it was wrong nonetheless and he was implicated in it. Through the usage of offshore tax havens it managed to avoid paying net corporation tax for 11 years.

Murdoch versus the Neo-Luddite Trade Unions
6,000 workers went out on strike in 1986 over the bosses trying to negotiate a no-strike clause, flexible working, the end of a closed shop and the adoption of new technology without a guarantee that their jobs would be secured. Murdoch's response was to follow Thatcher's example and sack all the workers involved with the dispute. This made him something of a hate figure.

These disputes have polarised opinions on Murdoch from being a champion of free speech (and free enterprise) to him being the modern-day equivalent of Joseph Goebbels. In this regard he is definitely controversial. He provides cheap news (the Sun and the Times have recently been reduced to 10p). On the one hand this is brilliant as it makes the news more accessible. But on the other it does this through bad journalism that undercuts quality newspapers and hurts the newspaper industry as a whole.

Compare Murdoch's notoriety with another figure in the UK newspaper industry: Jan Moir (I could have picked any columnist but she's the most well known atm). Her article was worthy of a good scandal, but she just has the one scandal to her name. The same is true of Andy Coulson (former editor of the News of the World, director of communications for the Conservatives) accused of hiring private investigators who tapped John Prescott's phone.
Murdoch has a full history of spats which define him and make him popular. Nobody will remember Jan Moir or Andy Coulson by next year, but Rupert Murdoch, he'll always be there.

UPDATE: I don't like double-posting 'internal links' because it irritates me a bit when I see it being done on other blogs. However I think this is relevant, I wrote a follow-up post explaining in more detail my thoughts Rupert Murdoch's news empire.