Who Framed the Murdochs?

[xchrom]

http://www.slate.com/id/2299556/

In five hours of hearings before a parliamentary committee today, witnesses Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch, and Rebekah Brooks attempted to convince the world that they have been framed by their former News of the World employees.

The trio never accused anybody by name, but they repeatedly portrayed themselves as victims of phone-hacking underlings. They knew nothing of the practice, they claimed, until their reporter Clive Goodman of News of the World and private detective Glenn Mulcaire were charged and went to jail in 2007 for hacking the phones of "royal" family staffers. As Brooks explained, she wasn't aware that current News of the World staffers were still hacking until actor Sienna Miller filed a civil suit against the paper and she saw the documents in December.

When asked which senior staffers had lied to her about phone-hacking practices, Brooks retreated.

"Unfortunately, because of the criminal procedure, I'm not sure that it's possible to infer guilt until those criminal procedures have taken place," she said.

[Prometheus Bound]

1. Nasty little employees.

Bad, bad employees.

[deacon]

2. The entire thing was a disgraceful farce. n/t

[xchrom]

3. +1

[pacalo]

5. And deeply "humbling".

"Too dumb to know this was hap'ning; smart enuff to still run the biz."

James Murdoch kept apologizing, saying he was sorry and filled with regrets and frustrated by the scandal, saying that the hacking was "inexcusable." But if he's really a betrayal victim, what does he have to apologize for?

[deacon]

6. You don't create an empire without attention to details. It was an embarrassing day for the PM's.n/t

[pacalo]

7. I watched the first four 15-minute youtube segments of "Countdown's" coverage last night

& I didn't get the impression the MP's did badly. There were a couple of MP's who outshone the others, from the four segments I watched. I'm going to watch the rest of them later this evening.

Rupert showed his cards, imo, when he couldn't contain his chuckle when he was told that the NoW had "collective amnesia". Murdoch seemed amused in a sick, appreciative way that his puppets were toeing the line as (he/his son) directed.

[deacon]

4. I saw Murdock using his Fox News formula yesterday - to put on just enough where it could be taken

to the airwaves and spun into something for the GOP, but in this case for himself and his son. It's exactly what he did and the major fail by the PM's allowed him to do so.

[xchrom]

9. +1

[Solly Mack]

8. Damn underlings! How dare they?!?!?!