Rupert Murdoch Admits A ‘Cover-Up’ At The News Of The World, Says ‘I Failed!’

Dear Commons Community,

Rupert Murdoch at an inquiry in London regarding his influence on major British government officials answered in reference to the phone hacking scandal that rocked his media empire last year: “there had been a “cover-up” at the News of the World, but claimed that he was a victim rather than an accomplice in the scheme. He also said that the phone hacking scandal will be a “blot on my reputation” for the rest of his life.

The Huffington Post is reporting that:

“The second day of Murdoch’s testimony before the media ethics panel found the mogul facing far sharper questioning than he did on Wednesday. Murdoch did not back down from his insistence that he had known nothing about the extent of phone hacking at his newspapers. (Indeed, he said that he had essentially ignored the News of the World for over 30 years.) But he said that he had “failed” by being such a remote chief executive…

In Murdoch’s telling, the wool had been pulled over his eyes by a handful of people at the News of the World.

“I think the senior executives were all misinformed and shielded from anything that was going on there,” he said, adding that he blamed “one or two” unnamed people for that. “There’s no question in my mind that, maybe even the editor, but certainly beyond that, someone took charge of a cover-up, and we were all victims of that.”

He claimed that those “strong characters,” who appeared to be former News International legal adviser Tom Crone and News of the World editor Colin Myler, had prevented reporters from speaking to either James Murdoch or Rebekah Brooks.”

Lord Brian Leveson, the judge leading the inquiry, asked how Murdoch could not have been more interested in phone hacking, given that he was so personally close to his print titles.

“I have to admit that some newspapers are closer to my heart than others, but I also have to say that I failed,” Murdoch said. After a long pause, he added, “and I am sorry about that.”

It will be interesting to see how Fox News covers this story!

Tony

 

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