James Murdoch's exit from the chairmanship of BSkyB moves his father Rupert into the firing line in Britain - reports the media - just as an inquiry into a phone-hacking scandal turns its focus on his peculiar influence in the country.   To the contrary, James is still in the firing line, because he is so deep in lies and conflicting testimony, and has so often been refuted by credible eyewitness and insiders, that - among Compliance Insights Cognoscenti - he is next in line to go to jail on "Martha Stewart" charges - i.e., for lying under oath to a governmental body.  In this case, it's the British Parliament;  Martha lied to the U.S. Congress. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch is due to appear this month before a judge-led inquiry into ethics and standards in the British press, which will be turning its attention to newspaper proprietors and politicians. So far, James has taken most of the heat for a scandal over phone hacking at the Murdochs' best-selling Sunday tabloid, the News of the World.  Rupert's youngest son, and Rupert's original choice to be "heir to his throne," ran the family's U.K. newspaper publisher News International when the scandal erupted last year, and has faced hard questions about how much he knew about illegal activity. The One Chance for James to avoid imprisonment. But media experts say the inquiry, which has a broad brief to examine the British press, is now turning to the fundamental problem of the sway media barons hold over UK politicians.

"If we are talking about influencing politicians from Margaret Thatcher onwards, then it is Rupert, not James, who was, is and will be 'in the frame'," says Ivor Gaber, political journalism professor at London's City University.

[C-I Note: And that, our friends, it the deterrent to justice.  Rupert can and will exert his broad-based influence to plead on his son's behalf - for Parliament to show mercy, now that News Corp. has seen its errors and banished poor James from the very lines of business that committed enormous breaches of personal privacy - of which James was aware and signed record amounts of restitution to victims of this organizations phone and e-mail hacking.]

Chris Bryant, an opposition member of parliament who has received compensation from News Corp after his phone was hacked, says Murdoch's extensive media ownership in Britain may be to blame for the liberties the News of the World felt able to take. The Murdoch newspapers in Britain — the Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun, and the new Sunday Sun which replaced the shuttered News of the World — make up around 40% of the national newspaper market.  News Corp also owns 39% of BSkyB , the country's dominant pay-TV broadcaster. "It was the News of the World behaving egregiously compared with all the other newspapers that started this," Mr. Bryant said. Since the phone-hacking scandal blew up last July, Prime Minister David Cameron, linked to Murdoch's newspaper executives both socially and through his ex-spokesman, former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, has taken steps to distance himself. Cameron bowed to public outrage — and limited the political damage — by setting up judge Brian Leveson's inquiry into the press and urging Murdoch to call off News Corp.'s intended $15 billion takeover of the rest of BSkyB. The Murdoch press, under fire, became less aggressive for a while, but in recent weeks has gone on the offensive against Cameron. "There's a widespread view that it is revenge, pure and simple, that Murdoch thinks the British establishment, led by David Cameron, is out to destroy him, so he is out to destroy Cameron," said publisher and broadcaster Andrew Neil, a former editor of the Sunday Times. The timing of the court hearing means that yet again, News Corp may also fail in its attempt to prevent the phone-hacking fallout from spreading, the motive for James Murdoch's resignation from BSkyB on Tuesday. Even without James in the chairmanship, BSkyB must prove to Britain's TV regulator Ofcom that it is fit to hold a broadcast license.  News Corp.'s corporate culture under the elder Murdoch is ripe for scrutiny. "One resignation doesn't stem the poison of media moguls. We need regulation," says Emma Ruby-Sachs, campaign manager for global activist organization Avaaz, which has gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures for a petition to stop Murdoch from expanding his media ownership in Britain. Click for referenced story:  [Reuters, 4/5/12].