James Murdoch maintained his plea of ignorance

There wasn’t the frenzied media attention, crowds, or even the shaving cream pie that turned James and Rupert Murdoch first appearance before a UK parliamentary committee hearing into high drama. But for James Murdoch his second appearance was widely considered make or break for his personal career and credibility. Murdoch, as expected, maintained his plea of ignorance about widespread phone hacking in News of the world as far back as 2008, and in turn accused former editor and lawyer of NoTW of misleading the committee.

Former NoTW editor Colin Myler and lawyer Tom Crone had earlier testified that James Murdoch was aware of “smoking gun” evidence about widespread phone hacking as far back as 2007-2008. Mr Murdoch was grilled for over 2 and half hours by sceptical MPs,

Mr Murdoch, who faced a shareholder revolt over his re-election from NewsCorp shareholders in New York last month, is coming up for a crucial AGM of the hugely profitable BskyB at the end of November. In the recent past, more damning revelations have poured out of the beleaguered News International. First, the company apologised and admitted it had put private detectives on the tail of phone hacking victim’s lawyers – and their children -- a practice James described as “appalling,” apologising to committee member Tom Watson for any surveillance. In the past week, a private detective has claimed that he was hired for 8 years to follow celebrities, including Prince William.

James Murdoch was recalled to testify before the committee, after Tom Crone and Colin Myler, who claimed James knew of the famous “for Neville” email, that proved the practice was widespread, and advice from external legal counsel who pointed out to a “culture of illegal information access.”

James Murdoch faced the awkward task of either admitting he knew about the evidence before, and therefore has been lying all these days, or admitting he ran the company and signed off massive settlements without detailed knowledge of what was going on. As expected, James stuck resolutely to his line that he was kept in ignorance of any evidence, leading an irate MP to comment that he was the first “mafia boss who didn’t know he ran a criminal enterprise.” Mr Murdoch insisted that he should have been kept informed by his former executives, and pointed out that NoTW was “the smallest” part of his responsibilities. He also admitted that the News International “had become aggressively defensive about criticism in the past,” and should have done a more forensic internal enquiry.

The Murdoch family, critically James who currently runs NewsCorp’s Asian operations including Star, has come in for increasing shareholder criticism from NewsCorp shareholders. At one time considered as a shoo-in as Rupert Murdoch’s successor, James Murdoch is now having to prove his credibility and credentials for his existing job profile.

The committee, which will not call any more witnesses, will submit its report “after deliberating on the direct contradiction between what NoTW former employees, and legal counsel have said, and James Murdoch’s version,” John Whittingdale, chairman of the committee told the media after.