The Titanic of Broadcasting?

Scandals are nothing new for News Corp. but hacking into and erasing the voice messages of a young murder victim is deplorable, as is illegally accessing grief stricken messages following death and other catastrophes.  To say these acts are an invasion of privacy would be an understatement, and shuttering The News of the World seems a fair price to pay.   However, the publication was less than one percent of News Corps. holdings, so while many are predicting (or hoping) that this will lead to the downfall of the empire all together, I’m pretty confident the company will survive.   

Rupert Murdoch, his son James, and former executive Rebekah Brooks will now face Parliament. From Rebekah they will undoubtedly question her involvement in the hacking scheme and subsequent cover up, while James will probably face questions of bribing police officers.  These are serious allegations, but what they really want to know is how much Rupert Murdoch was aware of; frankly, I imagine very little.  I have no doubt that Murdoch probably told his executives to get the scoop anyway possible, but I seriously doubt that he had much, if any, direct knowledge of the illicit activity.   Keep in mind the man is 80 years old; while he may be spry enough to have had two more children, his company is too vast for him to be involved in the daily activities of each holding.  As of March 31, 2011, News Corp. had total assets of approximately $60 billion and annual revenues around $33 billion.  In addition to News of the World, News Corp. also owns the following:

ALPHA	Smart Source	Big Ten Network
Big League	Sunday Herald Sun	FOX Business Network
Daily Telegraph	Sunday Mail	Fox Movie Channel
donna hay	Sunday Tasmanian	FOX News Channel
Dow Jones	Sunday Territorian	FOX College Sports
Gold Coast Bulletin	Sunday Times	FOX Sports Enterprises
Harper Collins Publishers	The Advertiser	Fox Deportes
Harper Collins Australia	The Australian	FOX Sports Net
Harper Collins Canada	The Courier-Mail	FOX Soccer Channel
Harper Collins Children's Books	The Daily	Fuel TV
Harper Collins India	The Mercury	FX
Harper Collins New Zealand	The Sunday Mail	Nat Geo Wild
Harper Collins US	The Sunday Telegraph	Nat Geo Channel United States
Harper Collins UK	The Sun	NatGeo Channel Worldwide
Herald Sun	The Sunday Times	Speed
Inside Out	The Times	STAR
New York Post	Times Literary Supplement	Stats, Inc.
News America Marketing	The Wall Street Journal	20th Century Fox
News International	The WSJ Digital Network	20th Century Fox Espanol
NT News	Weekly Times	20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Post-Courier	Zondervan	20th Century Fox International

20th Century Fox Television	FOXSPORTS.COM.AU
Fox Searchlight Pictures	HULU.COM
Fox Studios Australia	IGN ENTERTAINMENT
Fox Studios LA	MILKROUND
Fox Television Studios	NATIONAL RUGBY LEAGUE
Blue Sky Studios	NDS
Shine Group	NEWS.COM.AU
AMERICANIDOL.COM	NEWS DIGITAL MEDIA
ASKMEN	NEWS OUTDOOR
CAREERONE.COM.AU	SCOUT
CARSGUIDE.COM.AU	SPRING WIDGETS
FOX.COM	TRUELOCAL.COM.AU
FOXSPORTS.COM	WHATIFSPORTS

When your company spans the United States, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and Latin America, you have to appoint others to look after the the various divisions and trust they will conduct business in a reasonable and ethical manner.  Perhaps Murdoch is simply guilty of putting his faith in the wrong person by appointing Brooks.  Then again, maybe he orchestrated the whole thing, I suppose only time will tell.

UPDATE: 
According to MSNBC coverage, "Rupert Murdoch told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that he was not responsible for the phone-hacking scandal, adding that he was ‘shocked, appalled and ashamed’ when he read about the about the surveillance of a murdered teenage girl's voicemail by the now defunct News of the World newspaper.

When asked who was responsible for the phone-hacking, he said: 'The people that I trusted to run it, and then maybe the people they trusted.'"
Full article here

As I said before, it's going to take a lot more than a phone hacking scandal to bring down a titan.