News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch testified before the Select Committee of the U.K. House of Commons.  Also appearing were Murdoch's son James, the head of News Corps.' international division, and Rebekah Brooks, former chief of  its News International division.  The hearing seemed to follow the same tune ‘Murdoch and Company’ has been playing from the start of the scandal, with an apologetic Rupert Murdoch calling it the “most humble day of my life.”  He nonetheless, denied having knowledge of wrongdoing within his ranks;  Ms. Brooks also disavowed knowledge of any illegal use of private investigators, police payoffs or phone hacking.

News Corps.' higher-ups have unilaterally stated that they simply didn't know about any of the transgressions within the newsroom of the News of the World (“NOTW”), a U.K publication – this, despite the first arrest of a reporter for phone hacking going back to 2006.  Since then, despite multiple resignations, News Corps.' top people still are stating that the problems were insulated at the lower ranks, and that they were blind to any transgressions, as well.  Andy Coulson, who resigned as editor of NOTW after the original arrest, claimed he too knew nothing of illegal activity by reporters.  

In 2007, Rupert Murdoch responded to the growing allegations, saying: “If you're talking about illegal tapping by a private investigator, that is not part of our culture anywhere in the world, least of all in Britain.”  An internal investigation by News International that same year had been touted by the company as showing that phone hacking wasn't widespread.  Nevertheless, New York Times interviews with company officials indicated that higher ups were aware of the hacking practice, which they said was initiated to help limit exposure to litigation by Clive Goodman, the first reporter fired for hacking.

That investigation was led by Lee Hinton, who recently resigned as CEO of Dow Jones and, who was then the executive chairman of News International.  Mr. Hinton testified before Parliament in 2007, where he said, “There was never any evidence delivered to me that suggested that the conduct of Clive Goodman spread beyond him.”

According to the NYTimes, by the middle of 2010 enough lawsuits and litigation had mounted to prompt News International's legal team to suggest the company admit some culpability as the breadth of hacking was coming to light.  Brooks, then chief of News International, steadfastly disagreed with the assessment.

Brooks was editor of NOTW  in 2002 when reporters for the paper allegedly hacked the voice mail account of missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler.  On 7/5/11, Brooks responded to those allegations saying, “I hope that you all realized it is inconceivable that I knew, or worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations.”  And, when asked at the hearing today how she couldn't have known about the Dowler hacking, Brooks said that if she'd known about it, it wouldn't have happened.  Ms. Brooks resigned from News International on 7/15/11 and was arrested two days later.

The elder Mr. Murdoch, who deferred to his son for most of the committee's questions at today's hearing, closed his comments by reiterated that he'd never known of any of the misdeeds within his organization, and that instead he had been betrayed by his trusted news chiefs.  He added that each of them had “behaved disgracefully … and it's for them to pay.”   [NYTimes, 7/19/11]