Murdoch takes no blame in phone hacking scandal

LONDON – The question was pointed. The answer, even more so.

Wasn’t he ultimately responsible, as chairman of media giant News Corp., for the phone-hacking scandal that has shaken his global empire to the core?

“Nope,” answered Rupert Murdoch, sounding almost surprised anyone would think so.

The Australian-born media mogul described it as the “most humble day of my life.” But his conclusions during an afternoon of grilling by British lawmakers Tuesday were anything but.

Summoned to give evidence before Parliament, Murdoch tried to undo some of the damage caused by a newspaper debacle that has spread to politicians and the police, morphing into one of the worst national crises in recent British memory.

At times vague and frail-looking, at others pugnacious and curt, Murdoch denied any knowledge of rampant cell phone-hacking by the News of the World. His son James did the same in a sometimes-stumbling performance. And even as questioners tried to get him to accept some responsibility for what happened, the 80-year-old billionaire declared he was “the best person” to clean up the mess.

In the end, after three hours of sparring, neither side of the table in the staid committee room seemed to land a knockout punch. The person who came closest was Murdoch’s wife, Wendi, who sprang from her chair in back of her husband to smack an activist as he hurled shaving cream onto her husband.

“Mr. Murdoch, your wife has a very good left hook,” lawmaker Tom Watson said, in a rare moment of levity in the proceedings.

For the Murdochs, the testimony was a chance to make a public atonement for the allegations that the News of the World illegally accessed the private voicemails of potentially thousands of people, including not just celebrities and political bigwigs but also murder victims and fallen soldiers. In response to a public outcry, Murdoch shut down the News of the World a week and a half ago.

In a prepared statement, Murdoch apologized to phone-hacking victims.

“I want them to know the depth of my regret for the horrible invasions into their lives. I fully understand their ire. And I intend to work tirelessly to merit their forgiveness,” he said.

But he had to endure some sharp questions from lawmakers, who were intent on unveiling whether Murdoch fostered a culture of criminal recklessness at News International, the British subsidiary of News Corp., which also owns the Times of London and the Sun newspapers. In the United States, News Corp.’s holdings include the Fox TV network, 20th Century Fox film studio and the Wall Street Journal.

Murdoch said he had zero tolerance for lawbreaking but acknowledged that he might have taken his eye off the tabloid.

“The News of the World is less than 1 percent of the company,” Murdoch said. “I employ 53,000 people around the world … and I’m spread watching and appointing people whom I trust to run those divisions.”

He dismissed suggestions that he and his top executives had been “willfully blind” to what went on. “I’ve heard the phrase before and we were not ever guilty of that,” Murdoch said. “I feel that people I trusted – I’m not saying who, I don’t know what level – have let me down. … And it’s for them to pay.”