Rupert Murdoch was apparently attacked with a pie and his testimony before Parliament is now on hold (reportedly to resume soon):
The hearing room in which News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch was being grilled by members of Parliament erupted into chaos when a man attempted to attack Rupert Murdoch with what appeared to be a pie. Wendi Deng Murdoch, his wife, rose from her seat behind her husband to protect him and took a swing at the intruder. The man was taken away from the scene and the committee temporarily suspended the hearing.
told a British Parliament committee probing phone hacking by his journalists that he isn’t responsible for the scandal that has embroiled his media empire.
“Mr. Murdoch do you accept you are ultimately responsible for this whole fiasco?” asked Jim Sheridan, a member of Parliament.
“No,” replied Murdoch, explaining that those he hired and trusted and the people who they hired and trusted were responsible. He mentioned Les Hinton, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, who resigned on Friday. Hinton and Murdoch have worked together for 52 years, including while Hinton was chief executive of News International, Murdoch’s British newspaper publisher.
“I would trust him with my life,” Murdoch said of Hinton.
ABC News offers this video which also isolates and shows you Murdoch’s wife hitting the assailant:
Rupert Murdoch’s appearance before a parliamentary committee investigating Britain’s phone hacking scandal was interrupted after a protester rushed at the media magnate, whose wife Wendi Deng jumped to protect him.
The hearings were temporarily suspended after the commotion and a young man was seen being led out in handcuffs.
Video of the scene showed the suspect apparently carrying a plate with some sort of cream or foam as he moved toward Murdoch.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.