James Murdoch Back on the Stand

Oxford, MS 9/13/2011 (PennyPayDay) – James Murdoch is being recalled for another grilling before Britain's Parliament after former News Corp. executives raised serious doubts about his role in the country's tabloid phone hacking scandal.

The committee of lawmakers investigating the scandal hopes to tie up "one or two loose ends" by recalling the younger Murdoch, committee Chairman John Whittingdale said Tuesday. But the committee said News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch -- who appeared alongside his son at a July 19 U.K. hearing that was televised around the world -- was not being recalled.

The two Murdochs gave a dramatic performance earlier this summer, apologizing for a scandal that has shaken Britain's establishment but refusing to accept responsibility for the illegal behavior which happened at newspapers under their watch.

Ex-News Corp. employees have cast doubt on several claims made by the father-and-son media magnates.

Former News of the World tabloid editor Colin Myler and former legal adviser Tom Crone insisted that James Murdoch was wrong when he claimed not to have been aware of a critical piece of evidence suggesting that illegal espionage was far more widespread at the tabloid then was being claimed at the time.

Myler and Crone insist that Murdoch was explicitly told about the evidence in a 2008 meeting -- raising the possibility that James Murdoch authorized a massive phone hacking payout in an effort to bury the scandal and then lied to parliament about it in July.

"Clearly, there are different accounts which we have heard," Whittingdale told Sky News television. "We have spent some time questioning Tom Crone and Colin Myler last week about their version of what happened. We would want to put that to James Murdoch and hear more about how he recalls the meeting."

James Murdoch has stood by his testimony and his company has criticized Myler and Crone's evidence as confused and contradictory. A spokeswoman for News Corp., where James Murdoch serves as deputy chief operating officer, said he was "happy to appear in front of the select committee to answer any further questions."

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