Times empty on day — Murdoch's writers taking the mick (9)

I believe the answer is:

satirists

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'writers taking the mick' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'times empty on day murdoch's' is the wordplay.
'empty' means to remove the middle letters.
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'day' becomes 'sat' (I've seen this before).
'murdoch' becomes 'iris' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'times' with its centre taken out is 'ts'.
'sat'+'iris'='satiris'
'ts' put after 'satiris' is 'SATIRISTS'.

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I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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