Murdoch faces UK lawmakers, pie-thrower

LONDON -- Summoned by lawmakers to answer for a phone hacking and bribery scandal at one of his tabloids, Rupert Murdoch said he was humbled and ashamed yesterday but accepted no responsibility for wrongdoing as a widening investigation threatened to ensnare Britain's prime minister.

In a three-hour grilling, the 80-year-old media tycoon insisted he was at fault only for trusting the wrong people at the now-defunct News of the World, and noted that the paper made up a tiny portion of his vast media empire.

The scandal has embroiled Britain's top police, many journalists and politicians. Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his Africa trip to appear before a special parliamentary question session today.

Murdoch appeared confused and flustered in the beginning of yesterday's parliamentary hearing, turning frequently to his son James for answers. But he soon regained his trademark cool.

He said he had known nothing of allegations that staff at the News of the World tabloid hacked into cellphones and bribed police to get information on celebrities, politicians and crime victims, and that he never would have approved such "horrible invasions" of privacy.

In the face of lawmakers' suggestions that his organization encouraged such behavior, he was unflappable -- even after a protester rushed at him in the middle of the hearing. He remained seated when the man tried to throw a foam pie at him.

Murdoch said he had no plans to resign but expressed contrition on behalf of News Corp.'s British newspaper division, News International.

"This is the most humble day of my career," Murdoch said. He said blame rested with "the people I trusted . . . and then, maybe, the people they trusted."

News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton, former executive chairman of News International, have resigned, though Murdoch said he did not blame either of them for the scandal. Brooks and Cameron's former communications chief, Andy Coulson -- a former editor at News of the World -- are among several people who have been arrested in the scandal, though no one has been charged with a crime.

James Murdoch, 38, told British lawmakers that "these actions do not live up to the standards our company aspires to."

Testifying after the Murdochs, Brooks described allegations of voice mail intercepts of crime victims as "pretty horrific and abhorrent." She said she was told by News of the World employees that accusations of phone hacking by News of the World journalists were untrue, and that she realized the gravity of the situation only when she saw documents lodged in a civil damages case by actress Sienna Miller last year.