I’m livetweeting the Murdoch hearings–follow along @emptywheel.
The highlights thus far are:
MP Watson kept refusing to let James Murdoch answer questions for his father. At one point, Watson said, “Your father is responsible for corporate governance and it’s revealing how little he knows.” The only question Watson asked James–which he didn’t really answer–was “I’d like you to tell me whether you told your father” about one of the settlements.
In a key exchange, Watson asked Rupert, “Mr. Murdoch, at what point did you find out criminality was endemic at NotW?” Rupert answered, “Endemic is a very wide word.”
In other exchanges, Rupert was stumped. On at least two occasions, he took more than 10 seconds to answer a question.
Another MP made a big deal about Rupert going through the back door of the Prime Minister’s residence. Rupert explained, “I was asked. I just did what I was told.” At one point, James tried to interrupt to explain the special politics of Murdoch going through the back door. Then finally, Rupert said (this is not quite a direct quote), I went through Mr. Brown’s back door many times.
Then he asked the big question:
Mr. Murdoch: Do you accept that ultimately you are responsible for this whole fiasco? Rupert: No.