UK lawmakers: Rupert Murdoch unfit to lead company

Parliament's cross-party Culture, Media and Sport committee said Tuesday that News International, the British newspaper division of Murdoch's News Corp., had deliberately ignored evidence of malpractice, covered up evidence and frustrated efforts to expose wrongdoing.

Murdoch has insisted he was unaware that hacking was widespread at the now-shuttered News of the World tabloid, blaming underlings for keeping him in the dark.

The legislators said that if that was true, "he turned a blind eye and exhibited willful blindness to what was going on in his companies."

"We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company," the panel of 11 lawmakers wrote.