Rupert Mudoch told British lawmakers he "failed" and repeatedly apologized about the phone hacking scandal at his tabloid newspaper The News of the World. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
By msnbc.com news services
Updated at 7:14 a.m. ET: LONDON -- Rupert Murdoch is?not "a fit person" to run a major international corporation, a multi-party committee of British lawmakers said Monday.
In a devastating report into the tabloid phone-hacking scandal, the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee accused the News Corp chief of exhibiting "willful blindness" towards the wrongdoing in his organisation.
The report says News Corp's British subsidiary, News International, misled Parliament about the scale of phone hacking at its News of the World weekly tabloid.
'Huge failings'
It also said the company had deliberately ignored evidence of malpractice, covered up evidence and frustrated efforts to expose wrongdoing.
"News International and its parent News Corporation exhibited willful blindness, for which the companies' directors - including Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch - should ultimately take responsibility," it said.?
"Their instinct throughout, until it was too late, was to cover up rather than seek out wrongdoing and discipline the perpetrators," the lawmakers said in an 85 page report.?
"Even if there were a 'don't ask, don't tell' culture at News International, the whole affair demonstrates huge failings of corporate governance," they concluded.
The committee agreed unanimously that three key News International executives misled Parliament by offering false accounts of their knowledge of the extent of phone hacking at the News of The World -- a rare and serious censure which usually demands a personal apology to legislators. ??
However,?the report's conclusions about Murdoch's fitness to govern were not unanimous.?MPs from the ruling Conservative party issued a dissenting opinion, and described the characterization of Murdoch as unfit to run a company as "over the top".
The report, published on the House of Commons website in PDF format,?stated: "On the basis of the facts and evidence before the Committee, we conclude that, if at?all relevant times Rupert Murdoch did not take steps to become fully informed about?phone-hacking, he turned a blind eye and exhibited wilful blindness to what was going?on in his companies and publications.
"This culture, we consider, permeated from the?top throughout the organisation and speaks volumes about the lack of effective?corporate governance at News Corporation and News International. We conclude,?therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a?major international company."
As well as damning News Corp, the report will?also embarrass Prime Minister David Cameron, who acknowledged again on Monday that politicians were in thrall to the Murdochs and whose Conservative Party faces local elections across much of Britain on Thursday.
Murdoch: Hacking scandal cost 'hundreds of millions'
Cameron was summoned to parliament on Monday to explain why he would not investigate emails revealing that a ministerial aide had assured News Corp its bid for BSkyB would be approved.
He insisted there was no need to refer the case to his independent adviser on ministerial conduct, noting the emails had been handed to a judicial inquiry into press ethics, but did concede that politicians had been too keen to please the media.
James Murdoch was back at the Leveson inquiry, where he claimed he didn't know about phone-hacking at News Corp's U.K. unit, ?and didn't remember being told about it. ITV's Juliet Bremner reports.
"I am perfectly prepared to admit that the relationship between politicians and media proprietors got too close," he said during a rowdy debate, blaming politicians of both main parties for the failing.
Committee Chairman John Whittingdale opened its hearing of James and Rupert Murdoch last year saying his committee found it inconceivable that only one reporter at the News of the World, the weekly tabloid owned by News Corp's UK subsidiary, weekly had been involved in the hacking scandal.
"In the last few weeks, not only has evidence emerged that I think has vindicated the Committee's conclusion, but abuses have been revealed that have angered and shocked the entire country," he said. "It is also clear that Parliament has been misled."
Audiences around the world witnessed the 81-year-old Rupert Murdoch - whose newspapers could make or break British politicians - saying it was the most humble day of his life and saw him hit with a foam pie at the height of the scandal last July.
He answered many of the questions in monosyllables, sometimes flummoxing the committee members, while James Murdoch infuriated them at times with lengthy management-speak.
Rupert Murdoch tells UK phone-hack inquiry: 'I'm not good at holding my tongue'
Media regulator Ofcom will take the report's findings into consideration in its continuing assessment of whether BSkyB's owners and directors are "fit and proper" persons to hold a broadcast license.
A previous critical report by the committee came before last July's revelation that people working for the News of the World had hacked into the voicemail of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, which fuelled public anger and led to more revelations.
Reuters, the Associated Press and msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.
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