news corp. scandal

Phone-Hacking Investigators Want to Know Just How Politically Connected Rupert Murdoch Is

News Corp. chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch emerges from a meeting with key members of the Bancroft family, who controls Dow Jones & Co., Monday, June 4, 2007 in New York. The family had initially rebuffed Murdoch's $5 billion offer for Dow Jones & Co. in early May, but last Thursday agreed to meet with him. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
Photo: Jason DeCrow/AP2007

The media mogul is heading back to London, where his latest testimony in the ongoing phone hacking (and now corruption) investigation of News Corp. will focus on his and other executives’ network of political influence in Britain, the AP reports. Recently revealed examples of such influence include a 1981 secret meeting between Murdoch and then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, which ultimately smoothed the way for News International’s purchase of the Times of London.) And then there’s the 26 times that current Prime Minister David Cameron met with Murdoch, his son James, or arrested former News International head Rebekah Brooks in the past two years. That kind of thing.

Rupert Murdoch Expected Before Hacking Inquiry