Apologetic but defiant, Rupert Murdoch refused to concede ground to critics calling for the reform of his media empire, despite being confronted with fresh claims that News of the World journalists hacked computers and bank accounts as well as telephones - and may have also employed private investigators to target the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton.
The 80-year-old media tycoon experienced another spell in the line of fire yesterday, as he appeared before shareholders of News Corporation for the first time since several of his senior executives were arrested in connection with a scandal which continues to rock the establishment on both sides of the Atlantic.
Speaking at the company’s AGM in Los Angeles, he told Tom Watson, the Labour MP who has spearheaded a Parliamentary investigation into phone hacking, that reports of police interest in as many as three other private eyes that his newspapers employed are nothing more than: “recent rumours”.
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But in a series of contrite moments, he pledged to “admit to and confront our mistakes,” and said he was “personally determined” to right any wrongs that have been committed by his organisation. “I promise you, absolutely, that we will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of this and put it right,” he added.
It was by no means the humblest day of his life, but Mr Murdoch nonetheless experienced a gruelling hour-and-a-half inside the Zanuck Theater at 20th Century Fox’s Hollywood studio. Faced with a barrage of hostile questions from investors and shareholder activists, his mood swung from angry, to amused. At times, he even decided to lighten the mood cracking a joke.
Such a moment came shortly after Watson, who was appearing as a proxy for the US trade union organisation AFL-CIO (a News Corp shareholder), asked Murdoch if he was aware of the activities of private investigators Jonathan Rees and NOTW employee Alex Marunchak, who are suspected of attempting to gain private information about Kate Middleton and Gordon Brown.
