Whoops! Remember when Rupert Murdoch's News of the World was revealed to have illegally listened to the voicemails of teen murder victim Milly Dowler? And how the bastards actually erased the voicemails, leading Dowler's family to falsely believe that their little girl was still alive and checking her messages? And how Murdoch killed off NOTW in shame and a panicked attempt to avert scandal when it all came out? Well, there's a slight wrinkle.

As if the News Corp. hacking scandal weren't already lousy with pitch-perfect villains, a new one has topped them all. Former News of the World deputy features editor Paul McMullan gave a bravura performance today before a British government inquiry into the press scandal, gamely defending the most loathsome transgressions of his colleagues in the U.K. tabloid press with Snidely Whiplash relish.

When we last checked in on Fox News chief Roger Ailes' campaign to transform his peaceful, adopted rural redoubt of Putnam County, N.Y., into the sort of cesspit of fear and dread that he's more comfortable with, he was publicly pushing, threatening, and mocking the 80-year-old proprietor of a local newspaper that rivals his own vanity papers. Now he's trying to sue the guy out of existence.

British child phenom Charlotte Church—the little girl with "the voice of an angel"—graced Rupert Murdoch's 1999 wedding to Wendi Deng with a song. How sweet! He got her to do it for free by promising not to savage her with his newspapers. Then he savaged her anyway.

Brittle fabulist James Murdoch, who's been under fire for months on account of how he lied to Parliament, twice, about the criminal hacking enterprise he presides over as chairman of News International, has stepped down from the boards governing the defunct News of the World and the Times.

Neville Thurlbeck, the former News of the World reporter whose name in the subject line of an e-mail—"For Neville"—was the thread that unraveled the whole hacking mess at News International, has spoken out for the first time. And he insists that James Murdoch had no idea what was going on.

In your murky Monday media column: Newsbeast loses two top executives, CNN's "social network for news," News Corp finds one honest place on earth, the public opinion impact of Hackgate, and Mediawire is here.

James Murdoch, the News International CEO and News Corp. scion who has been identified by an overwhelming array of documentary and testimonial evidence as having been made abundantly aware that the company he runs engaged in widespread and routine criminal conduct by repeatedly hacking into celebrity's voicemails, told Parliament this morning that he didn't know anything about widespread hacking and all the people who say he did are liars.

As News Corp deputy CEO James Murdoch prepares to make his second appearance before Parliament on Thursday, here's what you need to know about his testimony over the News Of The World phone hacking scandal.

In your sunny Wednesday media column: News Corp's Australian head departs, James Murdoch goes back to Parliament, a newspaper CEO sees the light, Univision is massive, and Newark Politico vs The Politico.

In your manic Monday media column: Hackgate grows marginally dirtier, journalism majors make dat money, Malcolm Gladwell on Steve Jobs, the media lies, and Martin Nisenholtz retires.

Poor Rebekah Brooks! The disgraced former News of the World editor and News International executive, who oversaw the paper and its parent company while it hacked into the phones of murder victims, resigned in July and was arrested a few days later. She must be destitute! Except for the $2.7 million, chauffeured limousine, and office that her boss Rupert Murdoch gave her.

According to Sarah Ellison's new Vanity Fair story on the Murdoch clan, available in pdf form here, Rupert Murdoch's children hired a family counselor to help them work through the delicate issue of which one of them will wrestle News Corporation from their father's cold, dead embrace.

The parliamentary committee investigating illegal voicemail hacking at News International has released a cache of internal company documents showing that the firm was well aware of just how deep its phone hacking scandal went way back in 2008, when it was still publicly claiming that the problem was limited to a few bad apples.

No one likes James Murdoch! Not his dad—News Corp CEO Rupert, who's not pleased with James' handling of "hackgate"—and not independent News Corp shareholders, three-quarters of whom voted against returning James to the board of directors.

In your finally Friday media column: News Corp's annual spanking ensues, The Chicago Tribune's poor, the NYT's modest digital growth, cable news loves the gays, a Tim Hetherington exhibit, and I tell you which boxing blog to read.

News Corp. will pay a $3.2 million settlement to the family of Milly Dowler, the girl whose voicemail was hacked into by News of the World reporters after her murder in 2002. The company will also pay an additional $1.6 million to a charity of the Dowler family's choosing.

Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg is sticking up for billionaire mogul Rupert Murdoch as shareholder activists try to depose the aging News Corp. chairman.

The New York Times' Jeremy Peters dives into the father-son relationship at the heart of News Corp., and learns that Rupert and his son James do not see eye to eye.

Here's Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp, giving a speech at an education forum in San Francisco—and getting heckled by a group of education activists yelling "Occupy Sesame Street," which is, we guess, a slogan for education reform? (It's also a jokey meme.) According to the write-ups, the hecklers were dressed as Sesame Street characters, but we couldn't really tell; their beef with Murdoch originates from his ownership of education software company Wireless Generation.