Man arrested after attempted assault on Rupert Murdoch

high-stakes parliamentary hearing was halted Tuesday afternoon after a man rushed News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, who was testifying in defense of his company's handling of its tabloid newspaper scandal.

A person lunged at Mr. Murdoch with what appeared to a cream pie as he and his son James were seated at a hearing table more than two hours into a hearing on the phone-hacking scandal engulfing the company.

An unidentified man appeared to attack the elder Mr. Murdoch before onlookers including his wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, rushed to his defense.

Mr. Murdoch appeared unscathed by the attack and he remained in his seat as the attacker was dragged away.

Earlier in the hearing Mr. Murdoch had said he was not responsible for the phone-hacking fiasco at the media conglomerate, even as he declared it "the most humble day of my life."


News Corp. hearing gets underway in Parliament as James Murdoch apologizes before Parliament and Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch declared, "the most humble day of my life". Video courtesy Fox Business Network.

The appearance of Mr. Murdoch, long the U.K.'s most influential media owner and a household name here, is being widely watched by members of the public and the establishment looking for answers to key questions such as how widespread the wrongdoing was by company employees and what executives knew about it.

In what is believed to be his first appearance before a British parliamentary select committee, the 80-year-old media mogul's opening interrupted his son, James Murdoch, to deliver a short opening statement about it being the most humble day of his life. But, he said he wasn't responsible for any wrongdoing that had occurred, saying that lay with the people that he trusted "and maybe the people they trusted."


Chairman and CEO of News Corporation Rupert Murdoch acknowledges in response to Parliament's Tom Watson's question that he was misled on the extent of hacking at New of the World. Video courtesy of Fox Business Network.

Also testifying at the hearing, which started at 2.30 p.m. U.K. time, is his son James, News Corp.'s deputy chief operating officer. Their appearance is due to be followed at 3.30 p.m. by that of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief of the U.K. newspaper unit, who resigned on Friday. Ms. Brooks was arrested Sunday in connection with a police probe into phone-hacking and was later released, without charge.

Rupert and James Murdoch put on a sometimes awkward father-and-son performance, with the elder Mr. Murdoch sometimes blaming others for the company's failures in the phone hacking saga and the younger man hewing more closely to a careful company line that attempted to balance the need to take responsibility and be contrite with an attempt to portray the company as responsive and transparent in dealing with the crisis.

Mr. Murdoch delivered short, clipped answers initially, at times taking long pauses before responding. But then he veered off topic to deliver a defense of his own inaction in dealing with the scandal earlier. He admitted that the company did not launch an investigation when Ms. Brooks told a parliamentary committee in 2003 that police officers had been paid for information.

But, slapping the table, he quickly added that News of the World—the tabloid at the center of the scandal—made up less than 1% of News Corp. and that he employs some 53,000 people around the world and so he relies on the people he trusts to run those divisions.

Later, he was asked whether he took responsibility for the "whole fiasco," Rupert Murdoch responded simply: No.