How bad has the News Corp.'s British phone-tapping scandal gotten? So bad that earlier today a group of British lawmakers issued a report that called Rupert Murdoch unfit to lead his empire. "We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company," the report from Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport committee reads. Ouch!
The report comes after months of investigation into a series of scandals out of the now-closed News of the World tabloid. It says that executives at the News “turned a blind eye and exhibited willful blindness” to widespread bad behavior at the paper." Further, it says that, "This culture, we consider, permeated from the top throughout the organization and speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International.”.
The committee approved the report six votes to four, with those against coming out strongly against calling the 81-year-old Murdoch unfit to lead.
Meanwhile, Murdoch himself came out swinging today in a letter to employees (read it here) in which the mogul comments on how "the report affords us a unique opportunity to reflect upon the mistakes we have made and further the course we have already completed to correct them." Murdoch insists the company is "working hard to put things right" and anyway? "Today’s report comes at a time when our business has never been stronger and we continue to demonstrate strong operational excellence focused on returning maximum value to all of our stockholders." And as long as that remains the case, Parliament can go [Australian euphemism] itself.
