Media

James Murdoch Denies Allegations, Mob Boss Comparison During Parliament Hearing

Embattled News Corp exec James Murdoch was slammed during his Parliament appearance today, during which time he was asked to clarify points he made during his first testimony in July. Members of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee were “at times hostile” toward Murdoch, according to the Los Angeles Times, and at one point compared Murdoch to a crime family boss.

Even so, Murdoch held firm to his original story, claiming that he was unaware of the widespread hacking that was purportedly rampant at News Corp publication News of the World.

His testimony came after some former News Corp employees cried foul over Murdoch’s July testimony. Tom Crone provided testimony alleging that Murdoch was informed of the widespread hacking as well.

Of course, today’s hearing didn’t exactly give us a lot of closure. Murdoch told the panel that he “behaved reasonably given the information I had,” according to the Wall Street Journal, and put down claims that he lied to Parliament in July. He also implied that the former News Corp employees who claimed he lied were lying themselves. Why someone would concoct a fake story to discredit Murdoch — and what benefit they could possibly get from lying Parliament — remains to be seen.

Most frustratingly, Murdoch apparently only changed one part of his story. When asked about a transcript of hacked voicemail messages, Murdoch had originally said he was “not aware of that at the time,” according to the WSJ. Today, however, he said he knew about the transcript but never saw it or was “briefed on its full significance” (WSJ’s words, not his). This, of course, begs another question: If you were aware that there was a document that allegedly contained hacked voicemail messages, wouldn’t you want to check in on that? Would you really brush that off and move on?

And an even better question: Can anyone provide something concrete (other than verbal testimony) so that we can all move on already?

TAGS: james murdoch parliament | murdoch parliament hearing | murdoch phone hacking | news corp phone hacking

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