Rupert Murdoch Attacked By Man Threw Plate With Foam At Phone Hacking Hearing
Rupert Murdoch, News Corp's tycoon under fire at the intense phone hacking hearing for News of The World scandal before British parliament. During their break, someone assaults Rupert Murdock with a white plate full of foam and threw it at his face while Rupert's wife in pink coat hits attacker back all caught on TV camera live!
We normally don't encourage such aggressive attack during political hearing, but under such circumstance as Mr. Rupert Murdoch's dis-respectfulness toward people's privacy, a plate full of white foam or even pie to his face doesn't seem too bad at all! Police has apprehended man who threw plate at Rupert Murdoch.
We normally don't encourage such aggressive attack during political hearing, but under such circumstance as Mr. Rupert Murdoch's dis-respectfulness toward people's privacy, a plate full of white foam or even pie to his face doesn't seem too bad at all! Police has apprehended man who threw plate at Rupert Murdoch.
The News Corporation boss was targeted by a protestor during questioning by MPs.
A protester has rushed Rupert Murdoch as the media baron gave testimony to British lawmakers, causing a scuffle and suspending the hearing. A man appeared to rush up behind Murdoch and was then struck by Wendi Deng, who jumped up to defend her husband. Police in the back of the committee room were holding an apparently handcuffed man with white foam covering his face and shirt. The foam also appeared to have spattered Murdoch in the Tuesday afternoon attack.
A protester has rushed Rupert Murdoch as the media baron gave testimony to British lawmakers, causing a scuffle and suspending the hearing. A man appeared to rush up behind Murdoch and was then struck by Wendi Deng, who jumped up to defend her husband. Police in the back of the committee room were holding an apparently handcuffed man with white foam covering his face and shirt. The foam also appeared to have spattered Murdoch in the Tuesday afternoon attack.
Rupert Murdoch versus Attacks By Man Threw Plate With Foam At Phone Hacking Hearing
Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul under fire for a growing phone-hacking scandal that has upended his empire, admitted to British MPs on Tuesday: "Today is the most humble day of my life."
The billionaire News Corp. founder and his son James testified before a committee of Parliament investigating the scandal, which has escalated in recent weeks to include allegations of bribery and corruption and forced the resignation of top officials at News Corp., Scotland Yard and even the office of Prime Minister David Cameron.
In front of the MPs, Rupert Murdoch was far from the intimidating figure some have claimed.
The 80 year old frequently asked for questions to be repeated, indicating that his hearing is failing. His speech often faltered, and his son stepped in several times to try and deflect the MPs attention towards himself.
Yet the position of James Murdoch, once viewed as the heir apparent to his father, could be threatened by the allegations.
The scandal over hacking into voicemails started off with complaints by Prince William and the actress Sienna Miller, and has spiralled to include a murdered schoolgirl and the families of British soldiers killed during the war in Afghanistan.
i was in the far east living there at the time. again, this is a live picture. this is what we are getting. reuters is saying a man threw a white plate with foam on rupert murdoch's face. and rupert's wife hit him back. reuters goes on to say that the press and public are being thrown out of the hearing. that's according to a reuters witness.
if reuters has this right, somebody tried to throw some foam at murdoch. the question is what was that foam? that could be a dangerous substance for all we know. but -- we are working to clarify and confirm some of these now. how did they get it in there in the first place with the modern security? the young man has been arrested in a hearing room outside of the committee room. and we will find out if we get any video of that in the next few minutes.
thoughts on security? how hard sit to get into this hearing? well, the security is very, very tight now since particularly since that person threw a grenade at the prime minister during the prime minister's questions and it hit him on the shoulder. it is very secure now and a very good question, how dawes pert get this foam in? would you be able to bring a water bottle into a hearing room there as far as you know? i don't know exactly.
of course, as a former member, i get in with less severity. somehow someone got it in. our witnesses -- here's the tape. the corner of the screen, looks like -- the older mr. murdoch was relatively unscathed. he was sitting there. upright. it was not like he was -- saying there is no sign murdoch was seriously hurt. you can also see wendy's arm going up and striking the person. that's great. that's wife support. spousal support.
you can see james here. the shot at his face. yes. getting up to defend his father. look at murdoch there. perfectly fine. joel klein standing. not alarmed. that's good news for the murdoch. separate from the incident then -- a look at it one more time. i'm not sure we can see. dow jones weighing in now murdoch appears unfazed by the afact tack and wendy leapt to her feet to depend her husband and the demonstrator has been removed from the hearing room.
up until that moment, john, thoughts on how this line of questioning went down? i think -- the line of questioning was pretty good. i was particularly impressed by mr. baret and mr. saunders questions that were very well prepared and penetrating in their supplementary questions. and i thought they did a very, very good job, actually. but, of course, you know, as i said to you off camera, in britain, the rule when things go to court or investigated by the police, you are not allowed to talk about them. the murdoches were able to shield behind that.
here is a shot. i'm not sure if it is live or not but that's the man if question. live picture. looks like he has the foam on his face. one might come to the conclusion perhaps this was -- nothing too dangerous. in way of a substance. who knows what the motive may have been. obviously, john, this is -- embarrassing for the house of commons.
yes, yes, it is. it is particularly embarrassing for the security system. what was the most shocking thing that came out of either of the murdochs today in your view? there i think -- actually -- performed very well. parliament in s a stage and put their case in a clever way. some sort of acrimony towards them and maybe even sympathy. this, the odd thing is, this man is throwing that foam may engender sympathy when he meant to hurt him. it is a backlash really.
i think they did a good job and -- under some pretty -- penetrating questioning particularly by saunders. i thought those two members of parliament did a very, very good job. you think that -- because here's this apparently young man attacking an 80-year-old man, that that -- it might engender some sympathy from murdoch even after -- despite all the withering criticism of the past couple of weeks? yes. people remember that a whopping strike -- murdoch was a fantastic guy. a real fighter. did wonderful things. kayla, what's the latest here? reporter: everyone is in a state of shock here, melissa.
apparently we are hearing that the -- attacker has been arrested outside of the hearing room. of course, any time something like this happens, the hearing will go to a ten-minute recess. everyone is regrouping here. all the journalists are in front of their cameras here. we have a full yard, as everyone is covering this. quite a state of commotion following that. this is -- right as the last question was about to be doled out to elder and younger murdoc murdochs. you know, i promise this is one of the last questions you will get today.
apparently protester got into the courtroom and that is what we have going on here. what's the scene outside there? in terms of public works? reports of police guards rushing to the scene. give us an idea of what's going on outside. reporter: lots of police cars here. i apologize if you can't hear me very well because there are a lot of helicopters also hovering above now all of the -- british tv stations have gone to aerial shots as they show all of those police driving around and the people outside rushing to get a look at this guy who is being cuffed just outside of parliament. it is not -- not the first time we have seen a very public figure get into situation.
sarkozy not too long ago, he was grabbed by someone behind the rope line. a pie thrown. newt gingrich had glitter thrown at him recently at a campaign event. president bush had a shoe thrown at him. you have to get through the concentric circles of security. you do. the escalation of helicopters and police cars is now a part of the system. this could be part of a coordinated attack and much more incidents. i personally think it was an individual and didn't want to disrupt the hearing. he waits until they said this is the last question and then does his pie. as he was -- he wasn't worried about having the stuff on his own face. it is probably not serious. very thoughtful of him to wait to the end so as not to disrupt the hearings. he wanted the murdochs to be embarrassed by the hearing. i think there will be a backlash and will encourage sympathy.
people in england p. the way murdoch was unperturbed. don't tell me they moved on this foam plate. that would be have -- it could be a coincidence. strengthening right now as we speak. that's another thing, john. any labor opposition member who is hoping for to ding the stock today did not get his way. it started up 3% and steadily climbed as the hearing went on. yes, because i think the questioning was very good but the defense was very good. shielded behind the rule very well. and they look calm and collected and didn't look back on their heels. then this last attack, i think, will be an added benefit for them.
i want to bring in martin dunn, former editor of the new york daily news and former executive at news corp. who has been watching the hearings. when the hearings were taking place and james murdoch was so apparently capably answering questions, even stepping in for his father, we were saying here on the set as this is going on, that this seems like a succession plan in the make. it did. i thought -- i thought rupert in classic rupert style wrote his own headline, this is the most difficult day of my life.
i knew rupert for many years. one of the things he would dislike is the curtain being lift order the workings of his company like this. i thought it was very significant james took the lead, that james really had the attention to detail. that james is the one who really wrestled with a very difficult questions. i thought that it was significant that rupert came across as this very sort of contrite character, trying obviously to generate some pim pathy for the company. i think that -- i think that they -- as a sort of team, they worked quite well together. i thought rupert looked tired. i thought rupert looked old. he is 80.
i thought he looked beaten up by the whole process and by the publicity that news corp. had. but then again, like every single day i have been following this story for the last two weeks, just when you thought you have seen it all, something comes up at the end that completely takes your breath away. you say james wrestled with the questions. wendy wrestled with the assail ant. the bbc, is attributing it to shaving phone. you can see from the video here that -- that rupert's wife, wendy, goes after -- wow. look at that forceful hand. comes right around. you can see where she is going
The 80 year old frequently asked for questions to be repeated, indicating that his hearing is failing. His speech often faltered, and his son stepped in several times to try and deflect the MPs attention towards himself.
Yet the position of James Murdoch, once viewed as the heir apparent to his father, could be threatened by the allegations.
The scandal over hacking into voicemails started off with complaints by Prince William and the actress Sienna Miller, and has spiralled to include a murdered schoolgirl and the families of British soldiers killed during the war in Afghanistan.
i was in the far east living there at the time. again, this is a live picture. this is what we are getting. reuters is saying a man threw a white plate with foam on rupert murdoch's face. and rupert's wife hit him back. reuters goes on to say that the press and public are being thrown out of the hearing. that's according to a reuters witness.
if reuters has this right, somebody tried to throw some foam at murdoch. the question is what was that foam? that could be a dangerous substance for all we know. but -- we are working to clarify and confirm some of these now. how did they get it in there in the first place with the modern security? the young man has been arrested in a hearing room outside of the committee room. and we will find out if we get any video of that in the next few minutes.
thoughts on security? how hard sit to get into this hearing? well, the security is very, very tight now since particularly since that person threw a grenade at the prime minister during the prime minister's questions and it hit him on the shoulder. it is very secure now and a very good question, how dawes pert get this foam in? would you be able to bring a water bottle into a hearing room there as far as you know? i don't know exactly.
of course, as a former member, i get in with less severity. somehow someone got it in. our witnesses -- here's the tape. the corner of the screen, looks like -- the older mr. murdoch was relatively unscathed. he was sitting there. upright. it was not like he was -- saying there is no sign murdoch was seriously hurt. you can also see wendy's arm going up and striking the person. that's great. that's wife support. spousal support.
you can see james here. the shot at his face. yes. getting up to defend his father. look at murdoch there. perfectly fine. joel klein standing. not alarmed. that's good news for the murdoch. separate from the incident then -- a look at it one more time. i'm not sure we can see. dow jones weighing in now murdoch appears unfazed by the afact tack and wendy leapt to her feet to depend her husband and the demonstrator has been removed from the hearing room.
up until that moment, john, thoughts on how this line of questioning went down? i think -- the line of questioning was pretty good. i was particularly impressed by mr. baret and mr. saunders questions that were very well prepared and penetrating in their supplementary questions. and i thought they did a very, very good job, actually. but, of course, you know, as i said to you off camera, in britain, the rule when things go to court or investigated by the police, you are not allowed to talk about them. the murdoches were able to shield behind that.
here is a shot. i'm not sure if it is live or not but that's the man if question. live picture. looks like he has the foam on his face. one might come to the conclusion perhaps this was -- nothing too dangerous. in way of a substance. who knows what the motive may have been. obviously, john, this is -- embarrassing for the house of commons.
yes, yes, it is. it is particularly embarrassing for the security system. what was the most shocking thing that came out of either of the murdochs today in your view? there i think -- actually -- performed very well. parliament in s a stage and put their case in a clever way. some sort of acrimony towards them and maybe even sympathy. this, the odd thing is, this man is throwing that foam may engender sympathy when he meant to hurt him. it is a backlash really.
i think they did a good job and -- under some pretty -- penetrating questioning particularly by saunders. i thought those two members of parliament did a very, very good job. you think that -- because here's this apparently young man attacking an 80-year-old man, that that -- it might engender some sympathy from murdoch even after -- despite all the withering criticism of the past couple of weeks? yes. people remember that a whopping strike -- murdoch was a fantastic guy. a real fighter. did wonderful things. kayla, what's the latest here? reporter: everyone is in a state of shock here, melissa.
apparently we are hearing that the -- attacker has been arrested outside of the hearing room. of course, any time something like this happens, the hearing will go to a ten-minute recess. everyone is regrouping here. all the journalists are in front of their cameras here. we have a full yard, as everyone is covering this. quite a state of commotion following that. this is -- right as the last question was about to be doled out to elder and younger murdoc murdochs. you know, i promise this is one of the last questions you will get today.
apparently protester got into the courtroom and that is what we have going on here. what's the scene outside there? in terms of public works? reports of police guards rushing to the scene. give us an idea of what's going on outside. reporter: lots of police cars here. i apologize if you can't hear me very well because there are a lot of helicopters also hovering above now all of the -- british tv stations have gone to aerial shots as they show all of those police driving around and the people outside rushing to get a look at this guy who is being cuffed just outside of parliament. it is not -- not the first time we have seen a very public figure get into situation.
sarkozy not too long ago, he was grabbed by someone behind the rope line. a pie thrown. newt gingrich had glitter thrown at him recently at a campaign event. president bush had a shoe thrown at him. you have to get through the concentric circles of security. you do. the escalation of helicopters and police cars is now a part of the system. this could be part of a coordinated attack and much more incidents. i personally think it was an individual and didn't want to disrupt the hearing. he waits until they said this is the last question and then does his pie. as he was -- he wasn't worried about having the stuff on his own face. it is probably not serious. very thoughtful of him to wait to the end so as not to disrupt the hearings. he wanted the murdochs to be embarrassed by the hearing. i think there will be a backlash and will encourage sympathy.
people in england p. the way murdoch was unperturbed. don't tell me they moved on this foam plate. that would be have -- it could be a coincidence. strengthening right now as we speak. that's another thing, john. any labor opposition member who is hoping for to ding the stock today did not get his way. it started up 3% and steadily climbed as the hearing went on. yes, because i think the questioning was very good but the defense was very good. shielded behind the rule very well. and they look calm and collected and didn't look back on their heels. then this last attack, i think, will be an added benefit for them.
i want to bring in martin dunn, former editor of the new york daily news and former executive at news corp. who has been watching the hearings. when the hearings were taking place and james murdoch was so apparently capably answering questions, even stepping in for his father, we were saying here on the set as this is going on, that this seems like a succession plan in the make. it did. i thought -- i thought rupert in classic rupert style wrote his own headline, this is the most difficult day of my life.
i knew rupert for many years. one of the things he would dislike is the curtain being lift order the workings of his company like this. i thought it was very significant james took the lead, that james really had the attention to detail. that james is the one who really wrestled with a very difficult questions. i thought that it was significant that rupert came across as this very sort of contrite character, trying obviously to generate some pim pathy for the company. i think that -- i think that they -- as a sort of team, they worked quite well together. i thought rupert looked tired. i thought rupert looked old. he is 80.
i thought he looked beaten up by the whole process and by the publicity that news corp. had. but then again, like every single day i have been following this story for the last two weeks, just when you thought you have seen it all, something comes up at the end that completely takes your breath away. you say james wrestled with the questions. wendy wrestled with the assail ant. the bbc, is attributing it to shaving phone. you can see from the video here that -- that rupert's wife, wendy, goes after -- wow. look at that forceful hand. comes right around. you can see where she is going
Activist/comedian Jonathan May-Bowles AKA Jonnie Marbles took credit on Twitter for the pie’ing of Rupert Murdoch at today’s parliamentary hearing.
Wendi Deng, Murdoch’s wife, tried to fend off the attacker, but, according to reports, he managed to land his plate of shaving cream “squarely” in Murdoch’s face.
According to CNN, Marbles shouted “you are a greedy billionaire” before he struck Murdoch with the makeshift pie.
No comments:
Post a Comment