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The Day In News Corp: Lawyering Up, Cartoonish Ploy For Sympathy
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 21, 2011
Modified Jul 21, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 21, 2011
Modified Jul 21, 2011
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News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch may be two days removed from his testimony (and the pie throwing incident) in front of a Parliamentary hearing about the phone-hacking scandal at his now-closed British tabloid, The News of the World, and, sure, maybe people just think he's really clueless and old and sounds like Crocodile Dundee... but that hasn't stopped News Corp. from hiring criminal lawyers here in the U.S.!
Former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey were hired by the News Corp. independent board. According to the Daily News, "The FBI is looking into whether any News Corp. employees hacked phones in the United States, and whether the bribes the midtown-based company has admitted were paid to cops in Britain violate the corrupt practices act. The 1977 law cracks down on U.S. companies using bribery abroad."
Today, one of Murdoch's remaining British papers, The Times of London, published an editorial cartoon featuring starving Somali children—and one with a stomach saying, "I’ve had a bellyful of phone-hacking," with word "Priorities..." in the corner. This might be the comic equivalent of the Wall Street Journal's editorial.
And let's not forget about that new Murdoch inner-circle figure, former NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. When Klein left the Department of Education last fall, he was going to head News Corp.'s education technology division (and, hey, connections probably helped News Corp. land a $27 million deal with the city). But with the scandal, Klein has been swept to the center of the maelstrom to do damage control and investigate News Corp. internally. WNYC looks at why Klein was tapped and the Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove calls him Murdoch's consigliere.
Tagged
criminal probe
distraction
joel klein
news corp
phone hacking scandal
rupert murdoch
somalia
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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