Rupert Murdoch - the old devil is up for it -YDA,.Ic?
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Rupert Murdoch strayed from his script, James Murdoch stuck to the crisis PR line on phone-hacking, while Wendi Murdoch was awesome. 04K[U9W3
Towards the end of the Dark Lord’s empire, his plucky opponents have to find and destroy the remaining horcruxes which give him his invincible power. \#
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First, Coulson the Snake is eliminated, strangled by his own serpentine coils. Next, his mighty organ, the News of the World, is shut down. $?_/`S1
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Then Bellatrix “Rebekah” Lestrange is “disappeared” behind a demonic cataract of curls into exile in the dark land of Chipping Norton. Re=()M
Still, never mind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. The other big drama everyone wanted to see was the testimony of Rupert Murdoch and his son James before a Commons select committee. R[C+?qux
I would like to make it absolutely clear, having spoken to my lawyers, Harbottle, Bluebottle and Nobottle, that there is no connection whatsoever between Harry Potter’s arch opponent, a master wizard who creates a climate of suspicion and fear among his cowering underlings, and Rupert Murdoch. %DK0s(*w0
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In fact, our first glimpse of the legendary media mogul was a huge anticlimax. Good grief, could that really be him? He was shockingly old. I mean, Galapagos tortoise old. Uuxx^>"h\
Despite the sharp pinstripe suit and fashionably strobing, chunky tie, the octogenarian Murdoch looked less like a master of the universe than one of those Ukrainian pensioners who is dragged from obscurity to testify about a suspected past as a war criminal. T*Dd%
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“Nope.” “Nope.” And “nope.” Those were the News Corp chairman’s first three answers to a fusillade of passionately incensed questions from Tom Watson, who knows a great deal more about the News of the World and its reporting practices than its owner seemed to. *~D|M
Seated at the right hand of the father was James Murdoch, who kept stepping in to speak for his faltering parent. “We were not in full possession of the facts,” explained James. HT`k-}ho,
Never mind the facts, in the opening 10 minutes Murdoch Senior seemed to be scarcely in possession of his faculties. In the interminable and embarrassing silences between question and answer, you wondered whether our star witness, with his head lolling forward, had actually nodded off. N)I9NM[
The only sign of the force he once was came when Rupert began to bang out his answers on the pine table in front of him with flattened palms; a defiant, almost contemptuous sound that was perturbingly at odds with the words of regret and contrition coming out of his mouth. i\zVP.c])*
At one point, Wendi Deng, who was seated just behind her husband, leant forward to try to stop him hitting the table. She just couldn’t help herself; Rupert’s unconscious drumbeat of defiance was clearly spoiling the carefully calibrated performance that both men were putting on to reassure their shareholders and save their business. x0KW\<k
Wow, Wendi! Trust me, you don’t want to mess with the Chinese-born third Mrs Murdoch. Immaculate in a coral pink jacket and polka dot skirt with killer heels, Wendi is two parts care nurse to three parts Ninja. <