Murdochs’ testimony: What have we learned?
Committee members react after a protestor, left checked shirt , named on Twitter as Jonnie Marbles, tries to throw a paper plate covered in shaving foam over Rupert Murdoch as he gave evidence to a House of Commons Committee in London, Tuesday, on the News of the World phone hacking scandal.(AP Photo/pa) UNITED KINGDOM OUT: NO SALES: NO ARCHIVE:
LONDON— Here are key points that Rupert Murdoch and his son James made during their testimony before lawmakers investigating the phone hacking scandal that has convulsed Britain’s public life and threatened the mogul’s media empire.
1. We’ve done nothing wrong.
Both Murdochs apologized for the phone hacking that went on at the News of the World — but as far as they were concerned, they were entirely innocent.
Near the end of the hearing, James Murdoch was asked whether he understood the words: “willful blindness.”
James was coy, asking for a detailed explanation of the term and then saying he didn’t follow the question. Rupert interjected, saying that he’d “heard the phrase before, and we were not ever guilty of that.”
____
2. Father wasn’t in the loop.
The famously hands-on Rupert repeatedly batted away questions about operations at the News of the World by saying he didn’t know what was going on.
“The News of the World is less than 1 percent of our company,” Murdoch said. “I employ 53,000 people around the world. … I’m spread watching and appointing people whom I trust to run those divisions.”
Later, Murdoch said he spoke to the editor of the News of the World only around once a month — adding that he had been focusing most of his attention on papers like The Wall Street Journal or The Sunday Times.
“The News of the World, perhaps I lost sight of,” he said. “Maybe because it was so small in the general frame of our company.”
____
3. The buck stops … somewhere else.
Rupert Murdoch rejected responsibility for the actions of his subordinates.
So who was responsible? “The people that I trusted,” Murdoch told lawmakers. “And then, maybe, the people they trusted.”
____
4. The disgraced criminal at the heart of the phone hacking scandal? We’re still footing his bill.
News International could still be funneling cash to Glenn Mulcaire, the private eye whose massive illegal eavesdropping campaign put the whole scandal in motion, James admitted.
Mulcaire’s high-flying (and highly expensive) defense lawyer has long led many to suspect that News International was footing his legal bills, possibly in a bid to buy the convicted criminal’s silence.
James acknowledged that checks had been made out to Mulcaire, with Rupert suggesting that his former right-hand man Les Hinton might have been the one signing the checks.
So why would money still be making its way to Mulcaire nearly five years after he’s been jailed? The Murdochs suggested that the payments might have been legally mandated, although neither had any detail.
Rupert agreed that he should try to find a way to stop the payments “provided it is not in breach of a legal contract.”
___
5. You know what’s a really great place? Singapore!
James’ lecture on media ethics amused many British journalists, but it was Rupert’s recommendation that lawmakers’ take a mega-payrise that was among the day’s most surreal statements.
The 80-year-old tycoon said that Britain’s public life might be a lot less corrupt if lawmakers were paid $1 million a year, as in Singapore, which he described as the “cleanest society in the world.”
“I mean that seriously,” he told bemused lawmakers.
Singapore is in fact ranked among the least corrupt in the world, according to Transparency International. The country’s press is restricted and critics of the government live under “a climate of fear,” according to Amnesty International.
