Is this the beginning of the end of Rupert Murdoch's media empire?

Leveson inquiry: Cameron struggles over 'Yes he Cam!' text from Brooks
Dan Sabbagh and John Plunkett
Guardian.co.uk, Thursday 14 June 2012 17.09 BST

Rebekah Brooks messaged PM 'I am so rooting for you' and 'we're definitely in this together!', Leveson inquiry hears

David Cameron came under intense pressure at the Leveson inquiry as he struggled to handle questions about his close friendship with Rebekah Brooks and how often he sought assurances from Andy Coulson about his knowledge of phone hacking.

The prime minister had difficulty remembering at the inquiry on Thursday how often he had met Brooks in Oxfordshire in the years leading up to the 2010 general election and was forced to discuss the meaning of a fawning "we're definitely in this together!" text sent to him by the then News International chief executive in October 2009.

When asked by Robert Jay QC, counsel to the inquiry, if he saw Brooks, also a former Sun and News of the World editor, "every weekend", Cameron found it difficult to give a precise answer. In the most halting period of his morning's testimony, the prime minister said: "I might be able to go back and check, but I don't think every weekend. I don't think most weekends. But it would depend."

Clearly concerned about the vagueness of his answer, immediately after lunch when the inquiry resumed, the prime minister said that he had talked to his wife, Samantha, who had checked his personal diaries for 2008 and 2009. Cameron said that because he was not in his constituency every weekend, he saw Brooks "every six weeks" during this period.

Brooks's revealing text, written the day before Cameron was due to address the Conservative conference, said: "I am so rooting for you tomorrow not just as proud friend but because professionally we're definitely in this together!" Sent a week after the Sun had come out in support of the party, Brooks went on to encourage the Tory leader by saying: "Speech of your life? Yes he Cam!"

The prime minister said the common cause identified in the text referred to the fact his party and Brooks's newspapers had the same agenda. "I think what it means is that we were, as she put it, we were friends, but professionally we as leader of the Conservative party and her in newspapers, we were going to be pushing the same political agenda."

Brooks's text began by sympathising with the prime minister over an unspecified "issue with the Times" – most likely a hostile article – and suggested that she could placate him over "country supper soon".

Jay asked if the country supper reference was "the sort of interaction you often had with her?" Curtly, the prime minister replied: "Yes, we were neighbours."

Cameron acknowledged that he was close to Brooks when she was editor of the Sun, until mid-2009, and subsequently chief executive of News International.

She had married Cameron's fellow Old Etonian Charlie Brooks in 2009 and lived a few miles from his constituency home in Oxfordshire. In her own evidence before Lord Justice Leveson last month, Brooks said she had texted him at least once a week – evidence that Cameron confirmed was accurate.

Cameron also defended handing the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, the task of overseeing News Corporation's controversial bid for BSkyB, saying it was "not some rushed, botched political decision".

He said he had been presented "with a situation I didn't want" after the business secretary, Vince Cable, was stripped of responsibility for the £8bn bid on 21 December 2010. Cable was recorded by undercover Daily Telegraph reporters saying he had declared war on Rupert Murdoch.

Cameron said it was suggested by Sir Jeremy Heywood, the permanent secretary at No 10 at the time, that the decision be transferred to Hunt. He added it that this was endorsed by the then cabinet secretary, Gus O'Donnell, and backed by legal advice.

"So I accept there is controversy, but I think the backing of, as it were, two permanent secretaries and a lawyer is quite a strong state of affairs," said Cameron.

The prime minister added that he was aware of what the culture secretary had said in public about the BSkyB bid, but did not recall a private memo sent to him by Hunt on 19 November 2010 in which he further outlined his support for the bid.

"It wasn't received on my email system," Cameron said. "The issue here is I don't particularly remember this note, and crucially, I didn't recall its existence on the day of 21 December when we were making this decision [to put Hunt in charge of the bid]."

Cameron said the decision had to be made "relatively rapidly", partly because of the pressures of the 24-hour news environment.

But he denied a suggestion by Robert Jay QC, lead counsel to the Leveson inquiry, that the decision had to be made "on the hoof" because Treasury solicitor Paul Jenkins was on holiday at the time and had to give advice over the phone.

"It was not some rushed, botched political decision," said Cameron. "If anyone had told me that Jeremy Hunt couldn't do the job, I wouldn't have given him the job."

The prime minister added that he had "no inappropriate conversations" about the bid with anyone from News Corporation, but did discuss it briefly with James Murdoch at a social event on 23 December 2010, also attended by Rebekah and Charlie Brooks. ...<cont>

Gordon Brown says records released by the Cabinet Office confirm his claim that he did not call Rupert Murdoch to declare "war" on News Corp.

Mr Murdoch told the Leveson Inquiry that the then prime minister made an angry call to him in September 2009 after the Sun dropped Labour.

But the Cabinet Office said there was no record of a call that month.

Mr Murdoch hit back in a Twitter message, saying: "I stand by every word I said to Leveson."

The Cabinet Office keeps records of all calls made through the Downing Street switchboard.

Mr Murdoch told the Leveson Inquiry into press standards that Mr Brown had phoned him after one of his company's newspapers, the Sun, switched its backing to the Conservatives.

He quoted Mr Brown as saying: "Well, your company has declared war on my government and we have no alternative but to make war on your company."

The News Corp chief further claimed that Mr Brown had not been in a "balanced state of mind" when he made the phone call.

Mr Murdoch could not recall the precise date of the call but News Corp later said it had been made towards the end of September 2009, when Mr Brown would have been at the Labour Party conference in Brighton.
Quizzed about the alleged call at the inquiry on Monday, Mr Brown said: "This conversation never took place."

The former prime minister added: "I'm shocked and surprised that it should be suggested, even when there's no evidence of such a conversation, that it should have happened."

He said any call that he made to "someone like Rupert Murdoch" would have gone through the Downing Street switchboard, even if it had been made on a mobile phone, because he always "someone on the call to verify what happened".

Asked if he would avoid using the Downing Street switchboard if he did not want there to be a record of a call, he said: "Well, I would never have done that."

He told inquiry barrister Robert Jay QC: "I wouldn't know Rupert Murdoch's phone number."

News Corp issued a statement after Mr Brown's evidence session to say Mr Murdoch stood by his version of events.

But the Cabinet Office has now released a statement which Mr Brown says confirms his evidence to Leveson.

It says: "Following Gordon Brown's evidence to the Leveson Inquiry on Monday we have received a number of questions about our records, which we provided to Mr Brown to support his preparations for the inquiry.

"We can confirm that there is a record of only one call between Mr Brown and Rupert Murdoch in the year to March 2010.

"That call took place on the 10th of November 2009.

"This was followed up by an email from Gordon Brown to Rupert Murdoch on the same day referring to the earlier conversation on Afghanistan.

"Four witness statements have been submitted to the inquiry on the content of the call by staff who worked in No 10 Downing Street and who were the four and sole personnel on the phone call."

Mr Brown's office said in a statement that the Cabinet Office note "confirms Mr Brown's evidence to the inquiry and this document will now be submitted by Mr Brown to Lord Justice Leveson".

"The fact is there is no record of a phone call Mr Murdoch claims to have had with Mr Brown around the end of September 2009," added a spokesman for the former prime minister.

"There is no record of a call because because no call took place. Indeed even now Mr Murdoch has been unable to name any date or a time of such a call."

Anyone want to make a realistic estimate of the health of Murdoch's media empire?

Thanks, isn't Shifty the ****-house rat a brilliant name?

I know Murdoch feels betrayed right now and is serving up plenty of **** sandwiches to the Tories, but in this respect I think he has a point.

According to the 2011 list of Forbes richest Americans, Murdoch is the 38th richest person in the US and the 106th-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $8.3 billion.

Do you think they dare stick Rebekah in the slammer?

I hope so.