Rupert Murdoch Slams Into a Wall

"We have more visibility perhaps on what we can see coming our way than you guys can, and look I can only, I'm tied because of the criminal investigation in what I can say, but I think in a year's time every single one of you in this room might come up and say, 'OK, well I see what you saw now'."


"Eventually it will come out why things went wrong and who was responsible and that will be another very difficult moment in this company's history."

That's how Rebekah Brooks explained to suddenly unemployed News of the World staffers why their newspaper was unceremoniously put down.  The News International CEO is reeling as British cops arrested a third, senior company man whom The Telegraph won't name yet describes as a 63-year old man.  Brooks is clearly intimating that there's plenty more, "another difficult moment" coming down the pike.

The situation has become bad enough that old Rupe himself is winging his way to London for a spot of damage control.  Meanwhile The Guardian is speculating that Rupe's kid, James Murdoch, could face criminal charges in Britain and the United States.

As deputy chief operating officer of News Corp – the US-listed company that is the ultimate owner of News International (NI), which in turn owns the News of the World, the Times, the Sunday Times and the Sun – the younger Murdoch has admitted he misled parliament over phone hacking, although he has stated he did not have the complete picture at the time. There have also been reports that employees routinely made payments to police officers, believed to total more than £100,000, in return for information.

The payments could leave News Corp – and possibly James Murdoch himself – facing the possibility of prosecution in the US under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) – legislation designed to stamp out bad corporate behaviour that carries severe penalties for anyone found guilty of breaching it – and in the UK under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 which outlaws the interception of communications.

And if that's not enough to sate your appetite for schadenfreude, The Independent is positively giddy over the Murdoch misfortunes.