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Protestor attacks Murdoch in live TV hearing

A live television moment in the UK parliamentary hearing saw a protestor attempt to hit Rupert Murdoch in the face with a plate of shaving cream.

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A protestor caused an upset at the UK parliamentary hearing into News Corporation overnight when he attempted to hit Rupert Murdoch in the face with a paper plate of shaving cream.

The shocked moment came after two hours of questioning into the phone hacking scandal.

The live television moment was thwarted by Murdoch’s wife Wendi Deng, slapping the protestor as police rushed to arrest him.

The parliamentary committee was shocked by the attempted assault and halted the session.

James Murdoch is said to have complained about a lack of security following the incident.

80 year old Murdoch and son James had apologised for the hacking scandal that has engulfed News Corporation, telling British lawmakers that “these actions do not live up to the standards our company aspires to.”

Rupert Murdoch told the committee it was “the most humble day of my life.”

But the protestor appeared to be dissatisfied with the explanations by the Murdochs, many of which saw Rupert admitting he was unaware of the activities of the News of the World tabloid.

The hearing resumed with Rupert Murdoch without his jacket, during which he said he had not considered resigning.

“I think that frankly I’m the best person to clean this up,” he said.

He concluded with a prepared statement apologising for the hacking scandal.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAfZK6_7aXU[/youtube]

18 Responses

  1. I’m so heartened that respondents on this blog (and David) care enough about the state of our media that they’re prepared to give up sleep to watch the process. But I’ve gotta say, between this and The Tour, I’m feeling pretty bleary eyed … 🙂

  2. Murdoch looked plenty energetic when he flew into London from Sun Valley to defend Brooks. Now suddenly he’s a feeble old man? He has stated many times that when it comes to his newspapers he’s an old fashioned “hands on” proprietor. He’s also stated Brooks is “like a daughter” to him. None of those things tally with his “what me?” testimony, saying he speaks to editors “once a month” and saying he “wasn’t aware” of every dodgy thing they brought up.

    The multiple payouts totalling millions of pounds, the confidentiality agreements, paying the legal fees of the private investigator who hacked the Dowling family even after he was convicted, re-hiring people with convictions etc. Even though a lot of people are only just paying attention now, this has been going on for six or seven years. If Rupert really didn’t know anything then at the very least it shows poor corporate governance by a CEO. It also drops James in it big time.

    Overall: This was always going to be more of a PR thing. The criminal investigations, where people will be under oath, will be more important. Man, Rupert looked really confused, especially in the beginning. I half wondered if they’d given him some kind of sedative. James gave so many robotic, rambling non-answers that my eyes glazed over. I thought the first committee of MPs who questioned the police were more on the ball than the second. Except for that Tom Watson guy, their questions were toothless. Idiotic protestor guaranteed most headlines would focus on the pie. Wendi’s a bit fierce isn’t she?

  3. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. The three wise monkeys. But with 53,000 employees and one rag representing less than 1% of what he oversees, can’t blame Rupert at all. Bet he’s had a few words in private to James. Grandma too.
    So much for “security”. Lucky it was only cream. Should be a Parliamentary enquiry into that breach.

  5. First: I watched the whole thing, from when the first committee sat at 9pm AEST, all the way until well after 4am when the Brooks part of the second committee finished. I couldn’t stay up any longer for the third committee that had already started before that, into the CPS side of things.

    So, sleep? What’s that? 🙁

    Second: The Murdochs were largely untouched by the whole process, and at the least, came out unscathed. The attack on Snr. actually would have helped his cause, rather than the protesters, and hugely detracted from the overall push for the scandal to reach the top. People felt sorry for him – not the reaction many would have wanted from this.

    Third: he’s old. As Ashton said; what do you expect? Especially with such a large company, responsibility is delegated down a chain, and only critical issues & facts/figures reach back up along it. Otherwise they have an autonomy to do their work. The company is simply too huge for it to work otherwise. The majority of all this would have been handled within the actual newspapers themselves, as they are each a separate entity which would function autonomously.

    Way too big to happen any other way.

    Overall, it was very interesting viewing. I am glad to have seen it.

  7. I don’t understand why people complain that he didn’t know much about the company and seemed to have forgotten everything. Do people realise that he is 80 years old? This deplorable protester will go down in history as the man that was slapped by a women infront of an international audience. What an embarrassment to his family.

  9. What a great night! TDF playing on SBS tracker on the laptop – Murdochs blowing their empire to pieces on ABC News24 – and brilliant commentary all the while on twitter (#hackgate). All the best TV is on after 10:30pm!

  12. This made riveting tv viewing. No not really I only watched about 10 minutes of it. I just wanted to see what questions were thown at them. I guess a lot more was thrown.

  13. Thank god for ABC News 24. They broadcast the whole thing. Was interesting viewing. I fell asleep, but woke up, and at the right time cos it was right when Murdoch was attacked.
    That being said what a disgrace both Rupert and James are. No responsibility at all. Wish we had another newspaper in Adelaide instead of the Murdoch owned rubbish.

  14. I watched it on Seven last night, and Rupert was so vague most of the time, memory lapses, looking at his son for help, what a joke, he would have known what was going on. You don’t get that rich without breaking the rules

  15. That hurt the protestor caused is one millionth of the hurt the Murdoch run papers have caused. To sit there and say this is the most humble day of his life….well that is just not good enough. It is amazing what people say when they are in trouble.
    Also for Rupert Murdoch to say he did not know about his is no excuse. He is the CEO, that buck and blame stops with him. Unfortunately this has tarnished the reputation of all news media.

  16. David you must have been up late!

    BTW what happened to Letterman? I set my PVR to record for about 3 hours from the end of the late news but nothing, will the be waiting until the next time Letterman is off before showing the one with Bono?

    They should have just moved Letterman to ch11 for the night. I couldn’t care less about this whole thing.

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