MURDOCH FAMILY RALLIES AROUND SON JAMES

At their meeting at 20th Century Fox studios last week, 35 percent of News Corp shareholders voted against reelecting James Murdoch to the board — and 40 percent of those who voted in favor of reelecting him were members of the Murdoch family. Another 7 percent of the votes were cast by Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, News Corp’s largest individual shareholder. Next month, the younger Murdoch is due to make a second appearance before a Parliamentary committee looking into the voicemail hacking scandal that forced the closing down of News of the World, published by a News Corp subsidiary, News International, which is headed by James. His future as the presumed heir to the News Corp throne could be hinged to that appearance. In an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff (The Man Who Owns the News) said it is now “inevitable” that James Murdoch will resign. “But could this drag on for another year? Yes.”