UK Government Defends News Corp Ties as Scandal Spirals

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

LONDON – "We are sorry" the full-page ad began Saturday, as Rupert Murdoch tried to halt a phone-hacking scandal that has claimed two of his top executives with a gesture of atonement and promises to right the wrongs committed by his now-shuttered tabloid, News of the World.

Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative-led government and the London police, meanwhile, faced increasing questions over their close relationship with Murdoch's media empire.

Cameron was feeling the heat Saturday after government records showed that Murdoch executives held 26 meetings with him in since he was elected in May 2010 and were invited to his country retreat. Senior police officers also had close ties to Murdoch executives, even hiring one as a consultant who has since been arrested in the phone hacking and police bribery scandal rocking Murdoch's News Corp.

Murdoch is struggling to contain the crisis, which has already forced him to shut down the 168-year-old News of the World, scuttled his bid for lucrative TV broadcaster BSkyB, knocked billions off the value of News Corp. and claimed the jobs of two key aides: Rebekah Brooks, CEO of his British unit News International, and Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton.

On Saturday, News Corp. ran an ad in seven British national newspapers with the headline "We are sorry." Signed by Murdoch, it apologized "for the serious wrongdoing that occurred."

"We are deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected. We regret not acting faster to sort things out," it said.

A front-page headline in another Murdoch paper, The Times, called it a "Day of atonement."
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I think you can safely say that Murdoch is in deep doo-doo.