Slapstick, Denial Highlight Murdochs’ Testimony

[marmar]

from truthdig:




Slapstick, Denial Highlight Murdochs’ Testimony

Posted on Jul 20, 2011
By William Pfaff


Slapstick was a suitable accompaniment to the statements by Rupert and James Murdoch to a parliamentary committee Tuesday in London, and to Prime Minister David Cameron’s performance Wednesday in the House of Commons concerning the intimate relations that exist between News International’s London newspapers and the present (and recent; one shouldn’t be partisan) British government.

A foam pie was thrust into the face of the senior Murdock, instantly batted away by his 42-year-old Chinese third wife, Wendi Deng, a volleyball ace, now a presumptive heir to the biggest international press group the world has ever seen. A Labor MP congratulated her on her “very good left hook.”

The 80-year-old Mr. Murdoch made an evasive gesture, in contrast to his seeming torpor during most of the session, interrupted by aggressive assertions that he knew nothing of the abuses and crimes alleged to have been committed by his newspapers, bore no responsibility whatever for them, all of them committed by “people that I trusted” who had let him down.

His son, James, knew even less, having arrived in London only in 2007, when the telephone hacking and subsequent police corruption scandals had already become known. Three persons who had brought civil actions against the company already had secretly been given a million sterling to shut up about the affair. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/slapstick_denial_highlight_murdochs_testimony_20110720/