News Corp honchos grilled

Written by FactBUZZ News on 20 July 2011

Testifying before a British parliamentary committee, Rupert Murdoch said Tuesday he could not imagine that journalists with his now defunct News of the World newspaper in Britain had hacked the phones of American victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Such hacking, if it occurred, risks being the bridge by which the wider scandal – that has engulfed Murdoch’s operation in Britain – might spread to the United States, where the media mogul has far more lucrative holdings.

Murdoch also testified that he is not responsible for the scandal, which has raised questions about behind-the-scenes relationships between a British media elite on the one hand, and British police and politicians on the other – the latter including British Prime Minister David Cameron. Rather, he said, he had been let down by those in whom he or his top executives placed trust. Indeed, Murdoch was emphatic that he would not resign, saying he was the “best person to clean this up.”

But he also showed humility by stating: “This is the most humble day of my life.”

While the unfolding story is significant even beyond Britain’s shores, the New York Times has for days been devoting arguably disproportionate resources to reporting the matter to the hilt. Though the U.S. debt limit crisis has dominated much U.S. news over the past weeks, the Times on Tuesday made aspects of the hacking scandal a double front-page lead ahead of the hearing.

Perhaps tellingly, the New York paper’s New York City section has faced increasing competition from the New York section Murdoch launched in the Wall Street Journal after his global umbrella company News Corp. took over Dow Jones, the parent company of the newspaper, in late 2007.

Murdoch and his son James appeared during the first of two sessions of the media committee of the British House of Commons. A protester – identified as comedian Jonnie Marbles – dramatically interrupted the almost three-hour hearing toward its end by lunging from the audience and attempting to attack Murdoch Sr. with a plate of foam. Murdoch’s wife, Wendi Deng, and James immediately jumped to his defence, with Deng – who had been sitting behind her husband – pushing the assailant away before forcefully slapping him.

After questioning the Murdochs, the committee heard testimony form Rebekah Brooks, a former News of the World editor and who was also, until her resignation last Friday ahead of being arrested and questioned by police Sunday, News International chief.

She said the company had moved “quickly and decisively” to stem the phone hacking after new evidence had emerged in December 2010 revealing the extent of the activity.

Murdoch this month summarily shut the News of the World, which Brooks ran from 2000 to 2003, and during which staff members hacked into the voice mail of a missing schoolgirl who was later found to have been murdered. The hackers deleted messages to make room for new ones, but the act – received with outrage among members of the public – reportedly gave her parents false hope that she may have still been alive.

“I was absolutely shocked, appalled, ashamed when I heard about the Milly Dowler case two weeks ago,” Murdoch told the committee, referring the murdered 13-year-old.