Oops! Les Hinton faces US calls for Dow Jones inquiry over phone hacking

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/20/les-hinton-dow-jones-senators
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Two US senators have turned up the heat on Les Hinton, the former chief executive of Dow Jones who resigned last week, calling on the panel that oversees the company's editorial integrity to investigate his role in the scandal.

Barbara Boxer of California and John Rockefeller of West Virginia have written to the special committee of Dow Jones and company demanding that they set up an inquiry into whether senior Dow Jones executives, Hinton especially, had any knowledge or role of alleged criminal activity at News Corporation.

They wrote: "Allegations of illegal phone hacking and bribery in the UK at properties owned by News Corporation, a US-based company, have outraged people around the world. The American people need to be reassured that this kind of misconduct has not occurred in the US and that senior executives at News Corporation properties in our country were not aware of, or complicit in, any wrongdoing."

The special committee of Dow Jones was set up at the time of the company's sale to Rupert Murdoch in 2007 in order to assuage fears that the media tycoon would affect its journalistic integrity. The committee was tasked with ensuring the "continued journalistic and editorial integrity and independence of Dow Jones' publications and services."