It was not only Rupert Murdoch who took a pie in the face – the Culture, Media and Sport committee of the British House of Commons looked amateurish and did not get clear answers about his complicity in phone hacking at News Corp. Maybe it was too much to hope that a group of MPs would be able to get to the bottom of the story. But the failure of accountability will embolden other institutions, and that could lead to a regulatory overreaction that would limit the public's access to news.
James Murdoch, deputy chief operating officer of News Corp., did not appear to be in command. Rupert Murdoch, News Corp.'s CEO, deferred to his son and disclaimed responsibility, saying, "I feel that people that I trusted let me down." Rupert Murdoch did say, "I am the best person to clean this up," but he offered neither a cleanup plan nor enough knowledge of the company's practices to suggest he is working on a cleanup. Rebekah Brooks, the former News of the World editor, said that she used private investigators for "legitimate" inquiries – but disclaimed any knowledge of specific payments.
Nor did British MPs pursue these threads. What does the cleanup plan look like? What is a "legitimate" inquiry that requires a detective? These questions went largely unasked, and unanswered. The failure of accountability extends to News Corp.'s board, and it is evident in the cozy relationships exposed in the widening scandal among police, the news media and politicians of all parties.
Without clarity and accountability, the public could turn to easy answers, such as more media regulation, burdensome government-enforced professional codes for journalists, and overzealous prosecutions, proposed by far less timid institutions – a forthcoming inquiry launched by British Prime Minister David Cameron; a newly emboldened Metropolitan police; possibly even the U.S. Congress. That puts the freedoms and competitive marketplace that Rupert Murdoch values so much in play. And since a free press exposed the wrongdoing, that would be a scandal in itself.