Rupert Murdoch attacked at Parliament, appears unharmed

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Rupert Murdoch attacked at Parliament, appears unharmed

July 19, 2011 |  9:17 am

 

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News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch endured not only verbal blows but also an attempted physical attack Tuesday during his historic appearance before a committee of the British Parliament to account for the alleged illegal activities of reporters at his newspapers accused of hacking people's cellphones.
The hearing was interrupted when it appeared that someone tried to strike Murdoch, perhaps with shaving cream.
The crowd gasped, and his son James Murdoch -- who was sitting next to him at the witness table -- leaped to his father's defense. Rupert Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng, who was sitting behind the aging mogul, jumped up and reached out to slap the offender.
Murdoch's glasses appeared to come off and his ever-present gray-haired bodyguard jumped to help police apprehend the person trying to accost the mogul.
PHOTOS: British phone-hacking scandal
The disruption occurred during the final questions. The television feed did not show what exactly happened, but a CNN reporter in London said the offender, a young man, approached Murdoch and splashed his face with some substance, perhaps shaving cream, and accused him of being "a greedy billionaire."
Murdoch and his son appeared uncomfortable in the opening minutes of Tuesday's hearing, with Murdoch sometimes cupping his hand to his ear to better hear questions and interrupting his 38-year-old son.
"This is the most humble day of my life," the powerful mogul said.

But Murdoch -- wearing a blue pinstripe suit and blue tie -- a few minutes later told members that he did not think he was ultimately responsible for the phone-hacking scandal that brought down the News of the World tabloid, a 168-year-old institution, and now threatens his global media empire.
If not him, then, who was responsible, Murdoch was asked.
"The people I trusted and the people they trusted," Murdoch said emphatically, alluding to the people he felt should take the fall for the crisis that has torn through the United Kingdom, led to the closure of a tabloid a week ago and derailed a $12 billion-dollar deal. The out-of-control crisis has led to two high-level resignations and even an arrest of a top executive at News Corp.
British residents lined up for eight hours on Tuesday for a seat in the committee room, according to British press reports. They came to see the two Murdochs grilled by members of Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee -- an event televised around the world on cable TV.
Britain has been gripped by the drama unfolding over charges that News of the World routinely engaged in hacking into the voicemail accounts of celebrities, the royal family and even victims of crime and terrorism and their families.
During questioning, Murdoch appeared to try to distance himself from the imbrogilio.
"Perhaps I lost sight," he said when asked how hands-on he was with regards to the operations of News of the World. Murdoch tried to defend his lack of knowledge of what was happening at one of the biggest newspapers his company owns because ultimately the now defunct tabloid accounts for "less than 1% of our company."
"I may have been lax for not asking more," Ruupert Murdoch said.
James Murdoch, who has been in charge of News Corp.'s European operations since 2007, was put on the spot when one Parliament member asked him, "Are you familiar with the term "willful blindness?"  James Murdoch, smiled, hesitated, and then asked the member to elaborate.
Rupert Murdoch interjected, "I am aware of the term and we were not ever guilty of that."
The senior Murdoch said he works 10 to 12 hour days and "can't tell you the multitude of issues that I have to handle every day" adding that if he was blind to what was going on at News of the World, it was because the paper is "so small in the general frame of our company."
That proved to be a hard sell to some members.
"It is revealing in himself what he doesn’t know and what executives chose not to tell him,” said committee member Tom Watson of Murdoch's seeming lack of detailed knowledge as to what transpired at the paper.
It appeared that James Murdoch, who wants to one day succeed his father to run the global empire, was trying to play the dual role of protector of his gray-haired father and the executive in charge of knowing all the details of the inner operations of News of the World.  In addition, he tried at times to persuade lawmakers that much of the revelations regarding the culture inside News of the World was news to him.
"We are trying to establish the fact," he said, adding later that he was "surprised" to learn that the company had been in paying legal fees to two former News of the World operatives who had been convincted of phone hacking.
Father and son were not always on the same page. Asked by a committee member if News Corp. planned to launch a new tabloid to replace News of the World, James rushed to say no while his father indicated that no decisions on that subject had been made. James Murdoch then concurred.
James Murdoch tried to explain that many of the events being probed happend prior to his assuming oversight of News Corp.'s European operations. Soon after he arrived in late 2007, he learned some of the sordid details about how at reporter and private investigator hacked into emails.
At that point, Rupert Murdoch, interrupted.
"My son had only been with the company for a few weeks at that time," he said.
Said James, "It was a few months."
Asked later if he would resign, Rupert Murdoch said no, adding that he was "the best person to clean this up."

What Murdoch Faces Now

Ken Auletta
New Yorker
July 17, 2011
For nearly two weeks, Rupert Murdoch and his people have claimed that the newspaper scandal in London was caused by a few rotten apples. Now that a very large apple, Rebekah Brooks, has been arrested, it is clear that it is the entire barrel that is rotten. Since many editors had to have known of the illegal hacking, and many people on the business side would have had to sign off on large, illegal payments to the police for information, more apples will drop in coming days. And not only at News Corp.: Sir Paul Stephenson, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, resigned Sunday. The best public-relations advice in the world will not help contain what is, for Murdoch, a spreading contagion that is no longer confined to London.

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In the United Kingdom, Murdoch and his son James will have to tell a Parliamentary committee on Tuesday what they knew and when they knew it. More than that, they will have to try to rescue their company from multiple government onslaughts and criminal investigations from members of Parliament who think they must impose curbs on News Corp.’s ownership of newspapers and television and sports in England, and from shareholders who claim they have been cheated.
In the United States, News Corp., as an American company, will, among other things, have to explain why it has not violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it unlawful to pay bribes to government officials overseas—a proscription that includes the London police; whether the New York Post (or any of the company’s British newspapers) hacked into the mail or phone calls of celebrities in this country or of the families of 9/11 victims; and why their unethical behavior does not disqualify them under F.C.C. rules that require that those who license TV stations must be of solid moral character. Les Hinton, the head of Dow Jones and one of Murdoch’s senior executives in this country, has already resigned. (I wrote about Hinton’s departure on Friday.)

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News of the World phone-hacking whistleblower found dead

Death of Sean Hoare – who was first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson knew of hacking – not being treated as suspicious

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• Amelia Hill, James Robinson, Caroline Davies
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 July 2011 18.04 BST
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Former News of the World reporter Sean Hoare has been found dead. Photograph: BBC
Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned. Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, is said to have been found dead at his Watford home. Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but the force said in a statement: "At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for the welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after. "The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing." Hoare first made his claims in a New York Times investigation into the phone-hacking allegations at the News of the World. He told the newspaper that not only did Coulson know of the phone hacking, but that he actively encouraged his staff to intercept the phone calls of celebrities in the pursuit of exclusives. In a subsequent interview with the BBC he alleged that he was personally asked by his then-editor, Coulson, to tap into phones. In an interview with the PM programme he said Coulson's insistence that he didn't know about the practice was "a lie, it is simply a lie". At the time a Downing Street spokeswoman said Coulson totally and utterly denied the allegations and said he had "never condoned the use of phone hacking and nor do I have any recollection of incidences where phone hacking took place". Sean Hoare, a one-time close friend of Coulson's, told the New York Times the two men first worked together at the Sun, where, Hoare said, he played tape recordings of hacked messages for Coulson. At the News of the World, Hoare said he continued to inform Coulson of his activities. Coulson "actively encouraged me to do it", Hoare said. In September last year, he was interviewed under caution by police over his claims that the former Tory communications chief asked him to hack into phones when he was editor of the paper, but declined to make any comment. Hoare returned to the spotlight last week, after he told the New York Times that reporters at the News of the World were able to use police technology to locate people using their mobile phone signals in exchange for payments to police officers. He said journalists were able to use a technique called "pinging" which measured the distance between mobile handsets and a number of phone masts to pinpoint its location. Hoare gave further details about the use of "pinging" to the Guardian last week. He described how reporters would ask a news desk executive to obtain the location of a target: "Within 15 to 30 minutes someone on the news desk would come back and say 'right that's where they are.'" He said: "You'd just go to the news desk and they'd just come back to you. You don't ask any questions. You'd consider it a job done. The chain of command is one of absolute discipline and that's why I never bought into it, like with Andy saying he wasn't aware of it and all that. That's bollocks." He said he would stand by everything he had told the New York Times about "pinging". "I don't know how often it happened. That would be wrong of me. But if I had access as a humble reporter … " He admitted he had had problems with drink and drugs and had been in rehab. "But that's irrelevant," he said. "There's more to come. This is not going to go away." Hoare named a private investigator who he said had links with the News of the World, adding: "He may want to talk now because I think what you'll find now is a lot of people are going to want to cover their arse." Speaking to another Guardian journalist last week, Hoare repeatedly expressed the hope that the hacking scandal would lead to journalism in general being cleaned up and said he had decided to blow the whistle on the activities of some of his former News of the World colleagues with that aim in mind. He also said he had been injured the previous weekend while taking down a marquee erected for a children's party. He said he had broken his nose and badly injured his foot when a relative accidentally struck him with a heavy pole from the marquee. Hoare also emphasised that he was not making any money from telling his story. Hoare, who has been treated for drug and alcohol problems, reminisced about partying with former pop stars and said he missed the days when he was able to go out on the town.

Scandal Grows at News Corp. Former Senior Executive Is Arrested in Hacking Probe; Top Police Official Resigns

By CASSELL BRYAN-LOW, SARA SCHAEFER MUñOZ and ALISTAIR MACDONALD

LONDON—The head of Scotland Yard stepped down on Sunday and Rebekah Brooks—a close confidante of News Corp.'s top executive, Rupert Murdoch—was arrested as a convulsive phone-hacking scandal raced into the loftiest ranks of Britain's business and law-enforcement worlds.

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Rebekah Brooks, right, with former boss, Rupert Murdoch, last week.

The surprise resignation of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson came amid a spreading onslaught of allegations that some members of his force were corrupt and had forged too-close ties with the discredited newspaper at the heart of the scandal, News Corp.'s now-defunct News of the World.
Ms. Brooks is at the center of a web of political and media elite that has come under intense scrutiny as details have spilled out about the lengths to which British newspapers have gone to get scoops and the cozy ties that may have protected their actions.
She was arrested Sunday in connection with the central allegations in the saga: the illegal intercepting of phone voice mails and the alleged bribery of police officials by News of the World, a paper she once edited. More recently she headed News Corp.'s U.K. newspaper group, until resigning on Friday. Her friendship with U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has become emblematic of the close ties between politicians and the press.

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News Corp head Rupert Murdoch apologizes to family of Millie Dowler as hacking scandal claims more top executives. Video courtesy of Reuters.

A spokesman for Ms. Brooks said "she is assisting police."
Police released Ms. Brooks around midnight Sunday, local time. No charges were filed.
The former police commissioner, Sir Paul, said: "I may wish we had done some things differently, but I will not lose sleep over my personal integrity."
Sunday's events come just days before British police officials and current News Corp. executives, as well as Ms. Brooks, are expected to face a grilling by politicians at parliamentary-committee hearings over their handling of the scandal. Ms. Brooks is scheduled to appear at one of the hearings on Tuesday alongside Mr. Murdoch and his son, James Murdoch, News Corp.'s deputy chief operating officer.
Following Ms. Brooks's arrest Sunday, the chairman of Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport committee was seeking legal advice as to whether Ms. Brooks could still attend and, if so, what kind of questions she would be able to answer, according to a person familiar with the matter.

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The trio will face questions about the hacking and whether News Corp. officials previously misled Parliament.
Executives from the firm's U.K. newspaper business, News International, as recently as 2009 told the committee that the phone hacking was limited to just one reporter at the News of the World.
The committee also has previously asked Ms. Brooks about payments to police. In 2003, when she was the editor of another News Corp. tabloid, the Sun, she told the committee: "We have paid the police for information in the past."
At the time, she didn't elaborate on that statement. In April, Ms. Brooks said in a letter to lawmakers that her intention was to comment on a "widely held belief" rather than suggest she knew of specific cases of payments to police.
James Murdoch earlier this month said that News of the World and News International had failed to "get to the bottom of repeated wrongdoing that occurred" and, as a result, "wrongly maintained that these issues were confined to one reporter." The company now had handed police evidence that he believed "will prove that this is untrue," he said.
News Corp. owns Dow Jones & Co. and The Wall Street Journal.

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Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Stephenson, in April 2009.

For Scotland Yard, the resignation of Sir Paul from his senior position pushes the scandal further into difficult terrain. The Metropolitan Police Service (Scotland Yard's formal name) has come under fire from politicians for failing to investigate the phone-hacking issue thoroughly in 2006 and, more recently, for allegedly taking bribes from the News of the World. In recent weeks, Scotland Yard opened an investigation into the possibility that police officers accepted bribes from journalists in connection with the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.
The police have also come under fire for hiring a former News Corp. tabloid editor to advise the police on public relations. That editor, Neil Wallis, last week was arrested in connection with the criminal investigation.
A lawyer for Mr. Wallis declined to comment on the allegations his client faces. Mr. Wallis hasn't been charged.
Sir Paul said he first met Mr. Wallis in 2006, when he still worked at the News of the World, to discuss policing, as he did with other journalists. In 2009, after Mr. Wallis left the paper, Scotland Yard entered into a contractual arrangement with Mr. Wallis that ended in 2010. "I played no role in the letting or management of that contract," Sir Paul said on Sunday.