Rupert Murdoch again apologizes for tabloids’ phone hacking

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The Rupert Murdoch apology tour continued Thursday with the News Corp. chief executive again telling British lawmakers that he was sorry about the phone-hacking scandal at the media giant’s tabloids.

“I failed. And I’m very sorry about that,” the 81-year-old media mogul told a British judicial inquiry on media ethics inaugurated after revelations of phone hacking by the now-closed News of the World. “It’s going to be a blot on my reputation for the rest of my life,” Murdoch said.

While acknowledging that as head of the company the buck stops with him, Murdoch also continued to deflect blame for the fiasco which sparked three separate criminal investigations, the firing of top executives and dozens of arrests.

Murdoch, whose son James had oversight of the tabloids during much of the wrongdoing, said staffers at the paper had kept him out of the loop. James Murdoch has made similar claims.

“There’s no question in my mind that maybe even the editor, but certainly beyond that -- someone took charge of a cover-up -- which we were victim to and I regret,” Murdoch said.

For more on Murdoch’s testimony, please see our story in World Now.

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