Murdoch humbled
July 19, 2011
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch was quizzed by lawmakers in London on Tuesday, and told a special panel he was not responsible for a phone hacking and bribery scandal stemming from his now-defunct News of the World weekly.
Murdoch, 80, asserted he had been misled about the depth of the scandal, and told parliament's media committee that "this is the most humble day of my life."
When asked who he blamed, Murdoch said: "The people that I trusted to run it (his media empire) and then maybe the people they trusted."
Last week Murdoch pulled the plug on the NoW, Britain's best-selling Sunday tabloid, after it was revealed that reporters from the paper had tapped into the mobile phone voice mail messages of up to some 4,000 people, among them victims of high-profile crimes and the 2005 London bombings.
He said he was "absolutely shocked, appalled and ashamed when I heard about the Milly Dowler case two weeks ago," referring to the case of a murdered teenager whose phone was allegedly hacked by NoW.
Murdoch was unable to answer a host of questions leveled at him regarding allegations of unethical behavior at NoW, adding that with an empire of 53,000 staff spanning the world he could not be held fully responsible for failing to uncover the scandal.
He added that the 168-year-old tabloid publication was closed earlier this month because "we felt ashamed at what had happened."
Proceedings were temporarily halted when a civilian member of the audience inside the Westminster chambers attempted to throw what appeared to be a plate of shaving foam at Murdoch. The man was detained and removed from the building.
'No evidence'
The committee also questioned Murdoch's son James, 38, who is in charge of European operations for Murdoch's News Corporation media empire.
James apologized for any wrongdoing at News Corp subsidiary NoW, and sought to defend former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, who was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of phone hacking and bribing police.
"I have no knowledge, and there is no evidence that I am aware of, that Mrs Brooks … had knowledge of (phone hacking)," James told the committee. "Nonetheless those resignations have been accepted on the basis that there is no evidence today that I have seen or that I have any knowledge of, that there was any impropriety by them."
The Murdochs initially turned down requests by the select committee to answer questions but were later issued with a summons to attend.
Brooks faced the special committee later Tuesday, and also took the opportunity to apologize for what she said were "pretty horrific and abhorrent" allegations. She denied having any knowledge of phone hacking at NoW until documents relating to the allegations were made available by police in 2010.
When quizzed on ties between journalists at NoW and police officers - some of whom are alleged to have provided confidential telephone numbers and other information to reporters - Brooks said she had "never paid a policeman" herself, and had "never knowingly sanctioned a payment to a police officer" for information.
"In my experience of dealing with the police, the information they give to newspapers comes free of charge," she added.
Heads roll
Another resignation as a result of the scandal was that of NoW editor Andy Coulson, who was in charge at the publication when the allegations first broke. Coulson was later employed by David Cameron, both while he was in opposition and after he became prime minister.
Cameron, who cut short a trip to Nigeria to appear at a prime minister's questions session on Wednesday, has been placed under pressure by the hacking scandal, which he has said posed "big problems."
"Parts of the media committed dreadful, illegal acts. The police have serious questions to answer about potential corruption and about a failed investigation."
The scandal has led to the resignation of two of Britain's most senior police officers - London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson and Assistant Commissioner John Yates.
Stephenson had hired a former NoW deputy editor, Neil Wallis, as a consultant and accepted a vacation at a spa that Wallis represented. Wallis has been arrested in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal. Yates, meanwhile, had refused to reopen the investigation into alleged phone hacking at NoW back in 2009.
Author: Darren Mara (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Susan Houlton