Cameron Stands to Lose Much as Scandal Wears On
By JOHN F. BURNS, NYT
LONDON — In the 121-page parliamentary report on the scandal that has swirled around Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid newspapers in Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron is mentioned just once, in connection with one of the 35 people judged to be important in what the committee calls the “who said what to whom” element of the affair.
But the furor that accompanied the release of the report on Tuesday appeared to open a whole new arena of hazard for the prime minister and his Conservative Party.
Mr. Cameron’s Conservative members of Parliament voted against the report because of the insistence by the Labour and Liberal Democrat majority on including a condemnation of Mr. Murdoch as “not a fit person” to run a major international company. That carries the risk of Mr. Cameron being cast as a de facto champion of Mr. Murdoch, and the possibility of being tarred by association with the wrongdoing at the Murdoch-owned tabloids.
The dissenting Conservatives on the panel, alert to the risk, offered strong support for most of the other elements in the report, including a passage castigating Mr. Murdoch and his son James for “willful blindness” in failing to act sooner to curb illicit reporting practices and help bring the miscreants involved to justice.
(More here.)
LONDON — In the 121-page parliamentary report on the scandal that has swirled around Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid newspapers in Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron is mentioned just once, in connection with one of the 35 people judged to be important in what the committee calls the “who said what to whom” element of the affair.
But the furor that accompanied the release of the report on Tuesday appeared to open a whole new arena of hazard for the prime minister and his Conservative Party.
Mr. Cameron’s Conservative members of Parliament voted against the report because of the insistence by the Labour and Liberal Democrat majority on including a condemnation of Mr. Murdoch as “not a fit person” to run a major international company. That carries the risk of Mr. Cameron being cast as a de facto champion of Mr. Murdoch, and the possibility of being tarred by association with the wrongdoing at the Murdoch-owned tabloids.
The dissenting Conservatives on the panel, alert to the risk, offered strong support for most of the other elements in the report, including a passage castigating Mr. Murdoch and his son James for “willful blindness” in failing to act sooner to curb illicit reporting practices and help bring the miscreants involved to justice.
(More here.)
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