Something resembling competent management at News Corp. resulted from yesterday’s parliamentary hearings. After the embarrassing revelation that News Corp. was paying phone hacker private eye Glenn Mulcaire’s legal fees (Was that the part where James Murdoch said he was as shocked as the committee?), the company stopped paying them, reports The Guardian. Baby steps, etc.
Piers Morgan went on an emotional defense of the Murdochs and Rebekah Brooks on Wolf Blitzer. “Rupert Murdoch made me one of the youngest editors in Fleet Street history when I was 28 years old. I owe him a lot. I wouldn’t probably be here without his help,” he said, according to Adweek. Which is exactly why we resent him, Piers.
Barry Diller’s IAC has launched a social networking site for old people to share memories and life stories, according to Fast Company. It’s called Proust, and constructed around the Proust Questionnaire, which James Lipton and Vanity Fair use for interviewing celebrities. (James and Graydon are practically this site’s target demographic by now!) Is there any way IAC can monetize all this free content they’ll be stealing from the elderly without seeming above-average evil?