James Murdoch Blames Others, Gets Called a ‘Mafia Boss’

James Murdoch is put on quite a show today. In the latest round of questioning regarding the phone hacking scandal, Murdoch blamed others for not warning him about the possibility that the phone hacking was widespread. The New York Times reports that he said that editor Colin Myler should have told him more details about the events, and he also denied that he was shown an email containing hacking transcripts from Myler and legal advisor Tom Crone. He added that it was Myler and Crone who mislead Parliament in their testimony, not himself.

“Certainly in the evidence they gave to you in 2011 in regard to my own knowledge, I believe it was inconsistent and not right, and I dispute it vigorously,” said Murdoch. “I believe their testimony was misleading, and I dispute it.”

A head of a company claiming to be utterly oblivious to what is actually going on in that company is pretty surreal, but the most unusual moment of the day came when Murdoch and News Corp. were compared to organized crime. “You must be the first mafia boss in history who didn’t know he was running a criminal enterprise,” said Tom Watson, a committee member.

Cue the music please.

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