"It's the most humiliating day of my life." Rupert Murdoch had to get to 80 years old to experience the most burning mortification of his existence. The Australian tycoon's confession falls like a blade of ice on the routine of apologizing to the victims with which his son James had begun his hearing in the House of Commons.
The heir to the News Corporation media empire had started speaking a few minutes ago, announcing the start of compensation procedures for families affected by the espionage activity of News of the World, when his father - with a coup de theater – she interrupted him, admitting all her shame.
Rupert Murdoch, who has spent the last forty years of his life building up an unprecedented media empire, and who never in all these years would have imagined appearing before a parliamentary inquiry commission, showed up in Westminster with two hours before the scheduled time. In the back seat of his black car, on his way to Parliament, Murdoch had appeared smiling, barely hidden by a copy of the Wall Street Journal, the US newspaper he bought in 2007.
In the chamber, "it's like there's standing room only," said Paul Farrelly, a Labor member of the committee, perhaps alluding to the huge television audience of millions of Britons shocked by the illegal wiretapping scandal. Image strategists, however, have already studied the practice: Murdoch must show contrition and not digress on the narrow subject of telephone espionage. If Rupert shows contrition - they believe - and James remains calm, today could be the best day for News Corp since the story exploded in early July.
When asked by a member of the British Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport Committee about his responsibilities in the scandal, Murdoch answered a resounding "no". Authentic feelings or tactic? The doubt remains.
What is certain is that many British citizens now have a real aversion to the Australian shark. While he was still answering questions from the parliamentary commission, the tycoon was subjected to an attempted assault. It appears that a man was taken away by the police. In the images broadcast on television, Murdoch's wife, Wendi, is seen trying to defend her husband. The sitting was suspended.
