ENGLAND – Rupert Murdoch has admitted there was a cover up of phone hacking, but claimed he was too busy influencing the political landscape in the UK to possibly notice it.
The News Corp boss said shaping politics to his liking had left him unable to keep track of specific journalist activities.
“I had my hands full using my paper to turn public opinion against that damned Brown fella,” said Murdoch who testified to the Leveson inquiry that there were only so many morally repugnant acts he was capable of in a day.
Busy elsewhere
The former owner of the News of the World conducted most of the interview in the shade, avoiding the light due to an unspecified skin condition.
An aide to Rupert Murdoch appeared to back the Australian’s claims that providing a consistent conservative narrative while giving favourable political coverage for increased influence in politics did take up the majority of his time and energy.
“Do you know how bloody difficult it is to get those toffs in Downing Street in one place for a meal where we can talk about what political favour I need from them this time – it’s bloody expensive too.”
Proving his innocence, Murdoch – who temporarily left the inquiry to feed on innocent souls – said it was all he could do to keep politicians under his thumb, and getting involved with another legally grey activity was beyond him at his age.
“Crikey! I’m not bleeding God,” he cried at one stage of the inquiry before requesting the room temperature be turned up so his blood could absorb additional heat.
Sworn testimony
At the end of his seven hours of evidence to the inquiry, Murdoch decline the offer to be driven home and instead chose to disappear in a puff of black smoke.
In other developments, the 81-year-old said:
- He was surprised by the £425,000 settlement to Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor over hacking as “I normally make a live sacrifice to make problems like that go away.”
- He spent millions of dollars investigating journalist activities, namely why they were unable to find out if Simon Cowell was gay or not.
- He does not tell his employees to promote his TV channels as “everyone already pays me for Sky so what would be the bloody point.”
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