Could Rupert Murdoch be ‘the best person’ to clean up the phone-hacking mess?
Yesterday Rupert Murdoch said he would not resign over the News Corp phone hacking scandal because he said “I’m the best person to clean this up.” Was he right?
Murdoch senior has faced a lot of flak since the allegations were first announced. It seemed, after all, fairly impossible that he knew nothing of the allegations, although he said yesterday that he is ‘out of touch’ with the ins and outs of News International.
He said in a statement to the House of Commons: “For a newspaper that held others to account, it failed when it came to itself. The behaviour that occurred went against everything that I stand for.”
There have been suggestions that Murdoch’s role should be reduced from CEO and chairman of News Corp to just chairman, with COO and deputy chairman Chase Carey stepping in. However, independent directors Viet Dinh and Tom Perkins have said that the News Corp board fully supports the senior management team as it stands.
Chase Carey (pictured) has been praised as being more focussed on the bottom line than Murdoch, making him more popular with shareholders. He already looks after the day-to-day running of the company in his current role, so is seen as the perfect person to take over if the situation comes to that.
This decision could change the future of the company however. It was clearly planned that when Murdoch senior stepped down, James Murdoch – the current deputy COO and chairman and CEO of the international division – would step into his role. However, has he been brought down by the scandal as well? James Murdoch has been criticised for paying off hacking claims without fully investigating them. One anonymous shareholder told Reuters that the snub to James was the reason Rupert Murdoch was not considering the change in titles.
Former News Ltd editor Guthrie said that if any Murdoch took over, it looked more likely to be his daughter, Elisabeth: “I would have thought Elisabeth is a better chance. Elisabeth is not as tainted as some of the other kids. She has proven herself as a businesswoman in her own right.
“She is a longer-term proposition, if there is to be an interim period where Murdoch cedes control to someone else, an outsider, with the view of bringing one of the family back in again at a later stage.”
However, with shares rising by 5.5% yesterday after the Murdochs were questioned in the House of Commons, and Murdoch senior faced a foamy attack, it is possible the company is turning the corner and the board of directors will stay as it is.