Murdoch hearing: everything you need to know
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Rupert Murdoch claims to have been kept in the dark about major developments in the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World, which was “1%” of his company, and James Murdoch was unable to recall key information at their joint appearance before the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry into phone hacking overnight. In three hours of evidence before MPs, the Murdochs admitted:
In contrast to the Murdochs, Rebekah Brooks gave an assured performance before the committee after her former employers, fending off aggressive questioning and claiming that News International’s internal financial structures were a key reason she had no knowledge of Mulcaire’s action. As editor, she argued, her role was to obtain a global budget for the masthead, which was then managed by the associate editor and deputy editors. It is they who were responsible for authorizing payments. She also again tried to clarify her disastrous 2003 admission as editor that the NotW had paid police for information “in the past”, saying she personally had never authorized payments to police. The really significant political development of the day, however, was before the Commons Home Affairs Committee, which heard from, successively, the outgoing Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson, his Public Affairs director Dick Fedorico, his former deputy John Yates and former DPP Ken MacDonald, hired by News Corporation to conduct an internal investigation. Stephenson revealed that he had offered Prime Minister David Cameron’s chief of staff Ed Llewellyn a briefing on the scandal last year, and been turned down. It also emerged that Neil Wallis, a former NotW deputy editor arrested last week over the scandal, had worked with Cameron’s press adviser and former NotW editor Andy Coulson on the Tory campaign in 2009 before being employed by Yates at the Metropolitan Police. The direct connection between Wallis and the Cameron campaign brings the scandal closer to 10 Downing St, already linked directly via Andy Coulson. Lord Macdonald also told the committee that within minutes of examining NotW emails at the request of the News Corporation board, he decided the material needed to go to the police, as it was “blindingly obvious” that it showed corrupt payments to police. News International’s handling of emails and other material in relation to the scandal has repeatedly shown to be flawed, with claims of “full cooperation” with the police undermined by the apparent withholding of relevant material. Yates accused the company of a “deliberate cover-up” and suggested more at the company should follow his and Stephenson’s lead and resign. |
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25 Comments
Anyone make a guess at what size truck you could drive through those holes?
Thanks BK - I’ve been looking for the highlight reel all morning and this is the best one going. Sigh, about once a year I miss owning a teev…
Looks to me like Britain has has an 11th hour reprieve from becoming a Murdochracy. It is a crying shame that Australia has not been so lucky. If only Howard had been a better person. Our media laws are a disgrace and the unholy alliance between news limited and the liberals would not now be merging public opinion with the best interests of the excessively greedy.
So we saw some C grade buck-passing. I’m looking forward to a possible ‘night of the long knives’ in the News Corp boardroom. Apparently it was better for Rupe to look incompetent rather than amoral.
Incredible Hollywood superposition:
King Lear impossibly pulls off the Nuremberg defense,
Lady Macbeth T.K.O. s Charlie Chaplin,
Gordon Gekko does the Quality of Mercy thing from the Merchant of Venice
and Titania kneecaps Mike Hammer.
Two and a half stars – what do you think Margaret ?
It was train wreck viewing, something between King Lear and stand-up comedy (sit down?) and a slapstick foam pie thrown in for good measure. It had the lot. Rebekah starred as the evil daughter, lizard tongued and beguiling with her denials, even to the point of erasing her previous claim that they paid police.
Worth a bit of lost sleep to watch this drama unfold.
In the end, a decrepit mogul squillionaire denied knowing anything about anything, because, as he put it, News of the World was just one percent of his empire, and so what if it was in the business of trashing people’s lives, invading their privacy and using every bit of scumbuggery in the arsenal, what was it to him? James’ denials were more verbose and even more impossible to believe, as Watson extracted them time after time.
Exactly. What were these people to him? Just fodder for his factory until the truth finally got out.
In the end it was impossible not to realise how these people see the world: compensation money, we learnt, to the Murdoch’s is a ‘quantum’, just a cost, while people’s lives are a resource to be mined with whatever machinery works.
Junior started digging a hole before he was even asked any questions. As for Rupe… willful deafness?
I suspected the tracksuit photo telegraphed everything Tripe and Dodgyknees surmised from the coverage of the hearing.
The real tell was his accusations of left wing media taking him down mobstyle.
Such a tragedy, and James couldn’t have done anything about it.
The weirdest thing was gold-digger Wendy Deng, Rupert’s latest wife: she acted throughout like a nursing home carer supervising a geriatric.
When they arrived she moved the chair in for him. She sat right behind him, attentive to her charge as a giant mother chook, reaching out to touch him (when he banged the table) and leaping over the rugby scrum to whack Marbles the comedian.
At the end she tried to pick up Murdoch’s sheaf of notes, which he had hold of- Rupert ripped it out of her hands.
Murdoch for his part ignored his wife throughout.
Bit late for second thoughts now Rupert. ( He’s so much more at ease with Rebekah, the Pre-Raphaelite poseur.)
The questioning was predictably flaccid. Could have done with a Geoffrey Robertson super-sub. As it was, they were offered a choice between declaring themselves criminal or comically incompetent. Unsurprisingly they chose comically incompetent. As if the p0oint needed underlining: enter stage left clown with cream pie.
Pathetic!..the old coote looked more like Mr Magoo than Mr Magoo. And the foam-thrower Mr Marbles?..who paid him to break up the hearing and turn it into a comedy-fest which played straight into the hands of the Murdochs?…the world is a Murdoch stage!
Why is n’t the media lashing furiously at this facade? It’s been nothing but a cloak so far.
Well, that’s the media circus over. Hope the analysis and probing continues. And not just into News Ltd., either.
Rupert is an annoying rich old geezer but some of the questions were just ridiculous and digging.
For example there was a question about whether any of his employee’s were involved in tax avoidance. How the hell should he know, and even if they are, how is he responsible for that? Talk about digging.
Then there was one about him entering the backdoor at 10 Downing St. Who gives a toss what door he enters? Maybe he came through the side door? As long as he doesn’t come through the window who gives a sh!t?
Rups looked zoned out for most of the affair but his son did quite well in answering the questions.
The gold moment of the night of course was the pie stunt… and watching the vid back over his missus gave him a smack in the gob and then followed it up with the cream pie to the face(watch vid carefully and you’ll see what i’m talking about). Made great viewing of what was otherwise a boring event.
It was the Polly with the heavy Scotch accent who asked those stupid questions, forget his name…and the questions were worth forgetting too. Too rediculous indeed and for mine part of the scipt.
Oh the whole theatre had a Hans Schultz about it:
“I see nothing. I was not here. I did not even get up this morning!”
While watching the performance at the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiry into phone hacking overnight. A reference to ENRON and the use of the legal term “willful blindness” was made and explained to James Murdock. I found it on page 1268 of my Butterworths. I have latched on to this term, because it pleases me they way I may use it in future to define the very ordinary work product of so many of my elected representatives at Local, State and Federal levels of our government. Edward James
TTH , Back dooring Rupert. Its like a criminal , slipping around the back to AVOID being seen . Very shifty , just like the team rupert put in at 10 Downing street. His son didn’t do a good job and was very shifty , eyes going everywhere. Babling on till he thought of a story to tell. The foam pie was a get out of jail card and probably set up . I saw the wife defending the senile one , while the son hid behind ruppy. Gutless prick. Had to go to 7 and 9 to get better coverage , their abc covered up rupert half the time and those stupid banners. Its like abc are trying to lose the International news contract ? Mark scott has to go .
The old guy is a genius, almost !
The “I have just been let out of the nursing home for this visit” ploy he employed for the first half of the gig made me begin to feel sorry for him.
The pills seemed to kick in the second half where he appeared almost in control of his faculties but then he spoiled it by reading out the scripted PR bumff “Despite my actions and statements to the contrary over the last 10 days I am really sorry , we really are good guys, its not my fault etc etc ” just to remind us that he really had no contrition and is as arrogant/senile and delusional as ever. What was I thinking ?
The kid was slippery but managed to get away with it…so far… he was fighting for his freedom after all… and Mrs Huffnall was very impressive. Can now understand why she has Rupert under her spell.
(I cant believe no one asked James about his earlier boast that the hacking scandal has been contained and that ‘we have put this thing in a box’….would have loved to know what he was referring to…. or about News Corp’s recent apparent admission of of corporate skullduggery by making a $500 million settlement in the US over allegedly dodgy dealing in relation to a coupon insert rival, with the News guy responsible then getting a promotion!
I think they will all find it a bit tougher going in front of a legal enquiry, unless the judge is an old Eatonian or on the News limited payroll… or both.
I am still a bit puzzled as to who did anything wrong…. seems no one at the top levels did anything wrong and no one else who actually has a name did either , except the two people in jail. Just people below the people below the people below the people he trusted. (Apologies if I missed out any lowly people… but hey, you know who you are.)
As for the brilliance of engaging a pie thrower - an inspired bit of work by the PR company… I began to feel sorry for him again.
It is inconceivable that Rupert Murdoch will still be formally in executive control of this company by years end after this show .
Best 2 comments I have seen so far : ( Guardian commentator: ‘Rupert looked really really old … as in Galapaous turtle old ; and that of an Aussie blogger : ’ if one of his editors had a front page head line supporting Labour (or Labor) I am sure he would have noticed.’)
Can someone please order some clobber for the old king. I am worried he is going to freeze to death.
It is true the Truth hurts and the truth is that Rupert Murdoch didn’t wish to be seen going to the English PM’s dwelling. It is also true that he came across as forgetful at best as he who has a legendary reputation for being across all the details of his media empire and who talked regularly with his editors had no knowledge of things which the ordinary citizen with a casual interest in media knew about.
There have been some disturbing trends in Australia and the Murdoch empire. The dogged pursuit of Simon Overland for a start as a policeman who stood up to the Murdoch Press and was subsequently vilified by that press and hounded from office by the Murdoch papers. If bikies can buy information then the press certainly could. Time for a review of the media in Australia.
Peter White: “the judge is an old Eatonian”
He’s an Old Etonian, like the Cameron cabinet. An Old Eatonian is a graduate from Macdonald’s University.
Do the cleaners go through the back door?
Are they getting special treatment? It was a stupid question that was digging.
As far as I know the front door is for dignitaries, the back door for everyone else. You could claim that Rupert isn’t important enough for the front door.
That’d be the bloke that fudged the figures on crime stats in Victoria to try and get his mate John “there aint no crime problem” Brumby re-elected right?
The press are there to hold governments and public officials to account and thats exactly what they did on that case.
“As for the brilliance of engaging a pie thrower - an inspired bit of work by the PR company… I began to feel sorry for him again………” Peter White, if only!
As I watched it unfold I really hoped that it was not entirely unexpected! Was Wendy Deng too ready to act? Had James somehow given a pre-arranged signal to the custard pie thrower for if and when he wanted the distracting ‘assault’ to take place? Rupert was so calm, and brave in insisting he would carry on in his shirtsleeves regardless. What a game old octogenarian! The perpetrator was so relaxed and willing to be taken into custody I could imagine he was looking forward to a million dollar pay out in the not too distant future!
And why haven’t we seen a picture of Rupert with egg custard on his face?
Well Truthy, It is hard to know what Simon Overland actually did - the Australian had it in for him for a long time and perhaps he showed poor judgement - but then the Australian by publishing information which could have impacted on a crime investigation were far worse and they only went for him after he complained
. They never got over his complaint and hounded him for months for a number of supposed “crimes”. You may think this is alright in the media - but some of us think that it is not.
Peter White, further to your insightful comment earlier I have given it even more thought and posted a request at http://polliepomes.wordpress.com/ that Wendy Deng should apologise for depriving me of my share in all that humble pie.