the press has absolutely nothing to talk about. The people have no idol to cheer for. This is the state of the world today. Rotten.
Wendi Deng makes kungfu leap in Murdoch fracas
Press baron's wife fights off attacker in House committee room
(LONDON) The grilling of media baron Rupert Murdoch and his son James by British Parliamentarians yesterday took a surprising turn.
Hanging tough: While appearing to falter under intense questioning, Mr Rupert Murdoch pushes back against UK lawmakers with denials
'In a shocking interruption toward the end of the questioning by lawmakers, a protester rushed at Rupert two hours into the hearing, setting off a scuffle and spattering Murdoch with what appeared to be white foam in a foil pie dish.
Murdoch, 80, was not hurt and no doctor was required, a Reuters witness said. Murdoch's wife Wendi Deng, who was sitting behind him in the committee room, slapped the assailant and police rushed to arrest him.
A young man, wearing a checkered shirt and his face smeared in foam, was taken out of the room and placed in handcuffs.
The hearing was suspended and journalists and members of the public were asked to leave. It resumed 15 minutes later with both Rupert Murdoch and his son James present.
Murdoch appeared calm but had taken off the blue suit jacket that had been splashed in the attack.
Earlier under questioning by lawmakers over the widening phone hacking scandal, the elder Murdoch appeared to falter at times but pushes back with denials.
His son James said he had 'no knowledge and there's no evidence that I'm aware of' that Ms Brooks or other senior executives who have resigned from Murdoch companies as a result of the crisis had knowledge of phone hacking.
He said the hacking scandal was a 'matter of great regret of mine, my father's and everyone at News Corporation. These actions do not live up to the standards that our company aspire to everywhere around the world'.
Lawmakers quizzed the elder Murdoch about news reports suggesting that The News of the World may have sought the phone numbers of victims of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. He said he had 'seen no evidence of these allegations'.
He added that he was not responsible for the hacking scandal, and his company was not guilty of wilful blindness.
Slapping a desk in a parliamentary committee to underscore his points, he said The News of the World tabloid at the centre of the scandal represented about one per cent of his businesses around the world.
He said he lost sight of the paper because it is such a small part of his company and spoke to the editor of the paper only around once a month, talking more with the editor of the Sunday Times in Britain and the Wall Street Journal in the United States.
'I employ 53,000 people around the world who are proud, ethical, distinguished people,' he said.
Mr Murdoch said he had ordered the closure of the newspaper because 'we felt ashamed of what happened and felt that we would bring it to a close. We had broken our trust with our readers'.
Their appearances followed a separate committee hearing into the involvement of police in the scandal that exploded fully only two weeks ago with reports that The News of the World under the editorship of Ms Brooks ordered the hacking of voice mail of a 13-year-old girl, Milly Dowler, who had been abducted and murdered. Brooks has denied knowledge of the hacking.
'I was absolutely shocked, appalled, ashamed when I heard about the Milly Dowler case two weeks ago,' Mr Murdoch said. At points where the elder Murdoch was pressed on detailed points and seemed not to have a ready response, his son sought to intervene, but committee members insisted on answers from his father. -- NYT, AP, Reuters
