Rupert Murdoch A Fully Engaged Newspaper Boss: NYT

nytimes.com:

In that appearance before the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, Mr. Murdoch sought to distance himself from the hacking scandal, explaining that because he employs "53,000 people around the world" he cannot be expected to know everything everyone is doing at The News of the World.

He may have come across at the hearing as vague, detached and unfocused -- as an old man who was at times not quite all there. Investors in the News Corporation have been pressing for years for the company to arrange a clear succession plan for Mr. Murdoch, who is 80 years old, and speculation about his future is rife now that the company has suffered a significant blow to its reputation.

But Mr. Murdoch, who every morning reads avidly from what one former editor referred to as "the best clippings service I have ever seen," has never been a disengaged boss, especially from his newspapers.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[Bat Wrangler]

03:23 PM on 07/29/2011

Rupert Murdoch has the worst toupees I've ever seen. He's not nearly as handsome as Don Knotts was.

[Huzie]

11:42 AM on 07/29/2011

Murdoch played the old man who is drifting off to dementai card. Interesting way for this tyrant to try to escape the responsibility for his corrupt news empire

[sachazg]

02:00 AM on 07/29/2011

Duh, he's driving the bus!

[kidcat24]

03:47 PM on 07/28/2011

Love the boxes Murdoch

[Dbos]

12:05 PM on 07/28/2011

Would anyone have expected anything more?

[Matt12]

09:36 PM on 07/27/2011

"Rupert Murdoch A Fully Engaged Newspaper Boss", but you knew that

[ruhaba]

05:58 PM on 07/27/2011

I saw him when they were interviewing him in London , he was faking it, like what ? who ? i don't know. i don't underestand . oh no. no.. he did fool some people..

[jdevans]

10:52 AM on 07/27/2011

This photo is hilarious. There's maybe a dozen people watching and lots of room all around him, but Murdoch stands on boxes of printer paper to give a speech.

[Dbos]

11:59 AM on 07/28/2011

Where is the ladder he used ?

[riverhead]

10:13 AM on 07/27/2011

Seems like Murdoch weaseled his way out of the headlines pretty quickly ... right after that bomb is Oslo. Hmmm.

[riverhead]

10:11 AM on 07/27/2011

Why the puff piece on Murdoch, and why isn't he in the headlines any more? Oh that's right, there is no real journalism any more.

[SuperDW]

05:17 PM on 07/27/2011

Makes me almost wish that his scandal was tweeting pics of his junk. Almost.

[Huzie]

08:59 AM on 07/27/2011

Murdoch's ruse at the hearings was rather amusing in a despricable way. I was waiting for him to start drooling. He was trying to look like an old man on the brink of what? old age dementia. He deferred so much to his son, it was as if he didn't know what was going on. Poor Rupert. Did anyone not see through this?

[MissRoseNylund]

08:28 PM on 07/26/2011

Rupert Murdoch was pretending to be out of it, just like that Mafia guy did a few years ago at his trial. Even interupting his son to speak was part of the con.

[Red Russet]

05:35 PM on 07/26/2011

Many older folks who appear all there but are beginning to lose it will be able to fake it for a while. My mother did, at 88 seemed completely lucid and competent. It was only in the last year did she begin to seem a little confused, but I realized it probably had been longer.

[Dosadi]

10:13 PM on 07/26/2011

Makes me think of Ronald Reagan.

[rascalcat]

04:49 PM on 07/26/2011

Really, that's what his employees say. Well my Mother says I'm extra special, so there.

[oftenon]

04:19 PM on 07/26/2011

Never too disengaged to hand out pink slips to loose lips.