Someone just accosted Rupert Murdoch during his testimony before Parliament, apparently in an attempt to throw a pie in his face. He doesn't appear to have been injured. His wife Wendi played bodyguard, catapulting herself toward the attacker with arms and nails flailing. His son James just stood there.
Rupert Murdoch and his son James have been testifying this morning before a British Parliamentary committee investigating the wide-ranging criminality of basically everything they've done for the past 20 years.
Tomorrow, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, his son James, and former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks will testify before Parliament about their knowledge of the News of the World hacking scandal that has rocked Britain for weeks. But on tonight's Report, Stephen Colbert—much like Steve Doocy on Friday's edition of Fox & Friends—had a much less serious take on it all. Video of Colbert's segment is above.
How bad are things looking for News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch in the wake of the News of the World phone hacking scandal? This bad: If he screws up enough during Tuesday's parliamentary hearing, he may be replaced as CEO by jauntily-mustachioed COO Chase Carey.
The hacking group LulzSec appears to be back, with a very timely hack of Rupert Murdoch's British tabloid The Sun—the sister publication of the dead News of the World. And they warn, ominously, that they've got emails, too.
Even in the deepest, most gloomy depths of the worst scandal of a lifetime, Rupert Murdoch cannot contain his fundamental not-giving-a-fuck-about-public-opinion nature. It permeates every level of News Corp, the company he made in his image. But it is possible—believe it or not!—for public opinion to overwhelm even the staunchest self-justification.
Wondering why Scotland Yard botched the investigation into the News Corp phone-hacking scandal so badly? Well, it wasn't because the police agency was comically inept—at least, not entirely because it was comically inept—but because it was comically corrupt!
In your finally Friday media column: Rupert Murdoch apologizes, Andrew Ross Sorkin gets a TV gig, the AP stylebook is wrong, Google encourages you to read, and Bob Schieffer is still among the living.
The dingbats at Fox News' illiterate dementia variety hour, Fox and Friends, finally got around to "covering" the News Corp. hacking scandal that's giving their parent company overlord, Rupert Murdoch, so many problems these days. It is one of the sadder bits of television you'll ever see, right up there with... every other Fox and Friends segment that's ever aired, probably.
Add Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour to the list of GOP pols that Fox News CEO Roger Ailes schmoozes with. According to records obtained by Gawker under the Mississippi Public Records Act, Barbour met with Ailes at News Corporation's New York headquarters for an hour on October 14, 2010—just three weeks before the midterm elections in which Barbour played a major role.
Rupert Murdoch has given his formal interview since his world started collapsing around him—to the Wall Street Journal, of course. We're sure it was a hard-hitting barrage of questions. The upshot: He thinks he's handled the crisis "extremely well in every way possible." Yes sir! I was just going to say that.
In your lawless Thursday media column: the FBI's investigating News Corp, the Murdochs agree to talk to the Brits after all, a model journalism apology, a CNN reporter escapes a gunfight, and layoffs at PBS.
Another day, another overwhelming tidal wave of scandal emanating from all corners of the News Corp media empire! Today: defiance! Arrests! And more!
Do you hear that? It's the sound of another shoe dropping. News Corp, besieged by a strange and unfamiliar phenomenon called "bad publicity that can't just be ignored," just announced that it's abandoning its lengthy (and extremely important, at least in the context of European media) quest to take over British Sky Broadcasting.
In your treacly Tuesday media column: News Corp stock is a buy sell, Dan Doctoroff is Bloomberg's new CEO, the economy barely beats Casey Anthony, magazine ad pages are flat, and Time Out Boston folds.
