James Murdoch Steps Down As Executive Chairman Of News International

[DainBramaged]

Source: Huff Poo

James Murdoch has stepped down as executive chairman of News International, the British arm of News Corp., the company announced Wednesday. Murdoch, who was once seen as the heir apparent to his father Rupert at the head of News Corp., has now lost a key position within the company.

News Corp. cast the move as stemming from James' recent relocation to New York from London, and Rupert Murdoch said his son would "continue to assume a variety of essential corporate leadership mandates." He will also remain as the deputy COO of News Corp. But the reshuffling will be widely seen as a reflection of James' deeply diminished stature following wave after wave of damaging allegations about his complicity in News Corp.'s still-simmering phone hacking scandal.

James has long denied having any knowledge of the widespread nature of phone hacking within the News of the World tabloid. But a series of testimonies and released documents have put him ever-closer to a crucial 2008 meeting in which the former editor and legal director of the paper have sworn he was informed that criminality had been out of control within the organization. James was even sent a memo detailing the extent of phone hacking within the NOTW, but has stated he did not scroll down enough on his BlackBerry to read it.

James' departure leaves News International — once the key building block in Rupert Murdoch's media empire, and still a wing of his company he treasures deeply — without any member of the Murdoch family involved in a titular capacity. It also maintains News International's status as the most troubled, and trouble-making, part of News Corp. In the last year, the subsidiary has become a gloomy focal point for the company, even as overall News Corp. revenues have hummed along


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/james-murdoch-steps-down-news-international_n_1309953.html

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Too many holes in the dyke to plug.