Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch and his sons survived a shareholder challenge to their control of News Corp. Following the company's annual meeting in Los Angeles on Friday, News Corp. announced that Murdoch, his sons James and Lachlan, and the remainder of the board had been reelected -- despite calls from some shareholders for their ouster. News Corp. declined to announce the vote tally, saying it would release figures early next week. The vote is expected to be a referendum on Murdoch's stewardship of the $33-billion-a-year conglomerate that owns the Fox broadcast network, Fox News Channel, the 20th Century Fox movie studio, HarperCollins publishing house and such newspapers as the Wall Street Journal.

LONDON - She once had the ear of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Prime Minister David Cameron. Through newspapers such as the Times of London and the Sun, she exerted a powerful influence on British society. But in a spectacular fall from grace, Rebekah Brooks was charged Tuesday with three counts of trying to obstruct justice in the phone-hacking and media corruption scandal that has rocked Britain. Brooks' husband, Charlie, and four of her former colleagues were also charged Tuesday with two counts each of "conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Kevin Starr's article on Rupert Murdoch (Opinion, March 22) touches on some interesting points, not the least in his penultimate paragraph: "London denies Rupert Murdoch a seat in the House of Lords." Since Murdoch has sworn allegiance to the United States, he would hardly even be eligible for a peerage. And the prime ministers of his original country, Australia, have not recommended any of their citizens for honors from the crown for many years. Had Murdoch chosen to take citizenship of the United Kingdom, rather than that of the United States, he might have at least been eligible for such recognition.

Fallout from the British phone-hacking scandal continues to rattle News Corp., even as strong performances from the media giant's cable television and film groups helped it post a 47% jump in net income in its third quarter. News Corp. on Wednesday reported net income of $937 million for the quarter ended March 31, compared with $639 million a year earlier. Revenue increased to $8.4 billion, up 2% from a year earlier. Before discussing the New York company's financial results with Wall Street investors, Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey offered a spirited defense of his boss, Rupert Murdoch.

Interrupted only by a pie-throwing incident and a press conference by President Obama, the appearance of Rupert and James Murdoch and former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks before members of the British Parliament dominated all the American news channels for more than four hours on Tuesday morning. Even Fox News, which has in recent weeks been criticized for willfully ignoring the ever-growing scandal that threatens to engulf its parent company, News Corp., made the trio's appearance before the committee on culture, media and sport its morning centerpiece.

LONDON — Over 60 years, Rupert Murdoch built a media empire using his properties and their profits not just to break down the doors to the British establishment, but also to control it. So Tuesday's scathing declaration by a British parliamentary committee that Murdoch is "not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company" may mark the moment when the once-tamed establishment lost its fear of the country's most powerful...

Calling it the "most humble day of my life," media baron Rupert Murdoch appeared before British lawmakers Tuesday to answer questions about a phone-hacking scandal that has badly tarnished his and his company's reputation. The session was interrupted after 2 1/2 hours when a man ran up to Murdoch and apparently tried to fling something onto him, possibly shaving cream, causing Murdoch's wife, Wendi, to jump up to defend her husband while one of the lawmakers rose in alarm. The young man was quickly arrested, handcuffed and bundled out of the committee room, with a white substance on his face and shirt.

LONDON - He's hobnobbed with every British prime minister of the last 30 years but says he wields no undue political influence. His scandal-loving tabloids strike fear into the hearts of decision-makers, but he denies ever using his newspapers to advance his commercial interests. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch cast himself as the very model of a modest, upright newspaperman Wednesday, insisting in a London courtroom that any suggestion to the contrary was based on lies and legends.

LONDON - He's hobnobbed with every British prime minister of the last 30 years but says he wields no undue political influence. His scandal-loving tabloids strike fear into the hearts of decision-makers, but he denies ever using his newspapers to advance his commercial interests. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch cast himself as the very model of a modest, upright newspaperman Wednesday, insisting in a London courtroom that any suggestion to the contrary was based on lies and legends.

LONDON — Over 60 years, Rupert Murdoch built a media empire using his properties and their profits not just to break down the doors to the British establishment, but also to control it. So Tuesday's scathing declaration by a British parliamentary committee that Murdoch is "not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company" may mark the moment when the once-tamed establishment lost its fear of the country's most powerful...

LONDON — By turns contrite and defiant, media magnate Rupert Murdoch on Thursday apologized for the phone-hacking scandal that has tarnished his company but then blamed subordinates for covering up the problem and police for failing to investigate it properly. "The buck stops with me," Murdoch said. "I failed. And I'm very sorry about that.... It's going to be a blot on my reputation for the rest of my life. " Had he known the extent of hacking by the News of the World tabloid, he would have "torn the place apart, and we wouldn't be here today," Murdoch testified on his second day before a British judicial inquiry on media ethics, which was spawned by the hacking scandal.

LONDON - Rupert Murdoch's media empire enjoyed possibly inappropriate contacts with senior British politicians, including the government minister charged with deciding whether to allow Murdoch to take over a lucrative satellite broadcaster, according to evidence at a judicial inquiry Tuesday. James Murdoch, Rupert's son and deputy chief operating officer of News Corp., testified that he had met a dozen times with Prime Minister David Cameron and rubbed elbows with George Osborne, the finance minister, and Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland.

REPORTING FROM LONDON -- James Murdochsaid Tuesday he is stepping down as chairman of the satellite TV network BSkyB amidBritain'songoing phone-hacking scandal and accusations that newspapers under his leadership broke the law and tried to cover it up. In a letter to other members of the BSkyB board, Murdoch indicated he had decided to resign because of the constant stream of negative publicity surroundingNews Corp., whose British arm, News International,...

SUNDAY In the new series "Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates, Jr.," the Harvard professor uses genetics and genealogy to shake the family trees of such famous faces as Robert Downey, Jr., Samuel L. Jackson and Harry Connick, Jr., below. (KOCE, 8 and 9 p.m.) The gang's all here: The dapper Don Draper (Jon Hamm, below), plucky Peggy, sneaky Pete, pretty Betty, juicy Joan and all of your "Mad Men" favorites are back when the stylish 1960s-set drama finally — finally — returns for its fifth season.

Police investigating Britain's phone hacking scandal swooped down on a number of homes in an early-morning raid Tuesday and arrested six people, including a woman widely identified as Rebekah Brooks, the former head of Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers. Scotland Yard said five men and the woman were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, a more serious charge than phone hacking. That suggests that the authorities' probe of the scandal has broadened to include an investigation of a possible coverup by employees and executives at Murdoch-owned News International.

One would imagine that preeminent among Rupert Murdoch's New Year's resolutions would be moving his News Corp. beyond the hacking and bribery scandal that blackened the media conglomerate in 2011. Murdoch's first public gesture as the calendar changed, though, had nothing to do with the bad business of the old year and everything to do with chatter about a vacation, politics and perceived business triumphs. The world's best-known old media magnate created a small sensation by firing off a couple dozen messages on the social media site Twitter.