Murdoch and the blame game

Testifying, Murdoch Cites a ‘Cover-Up’ in Phone Hacking

Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images — Rupert Murdoch with his wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, after Mr. Murdoch testified in London on Thursday in an inquiry into newspaper practices. 

By SARAH LYALL
NYT Published: April 26, 2012

LONDON — Rupert Murdoch criticized many different people for many different things in a morning of scrappy and often blunt testimony before a judicial panel here on Thursday. But in the most explosive criticism of all, he unexpectedly accused at least one former employee of presiding over a “cover-up” of phone hacking and other dubious practices at The News of the World tabloid.

“I do blame one or two people,” he said, adding that he did not want to name them because “for all I know they may be arrested,” and then proceeded to make it fairly obvious whom he meant, anyway. One was the now-defunct newspaper’s longtime chief lawyer, Tom Crone; the other appeared to be Colin Myler, its final editor.

Mr. Murdoch said that as the newspaper’s proprietor, he bore ultimate responsibility for the hacking scandal that spurred him to shut The News of the World down last summer. But he said he had been “shielded” from the truth by his obfuscating employees.

“There is no question in my mind maybe even the editor — but certainly beyond that, someone — took charge of a cover-up which we were victim to,” he declared. “The person I’m thinking of was a friend of the journalists and a drinking pal and a clever lawyer.”

(More here.)