That’s the issue now facing sections of his media empire after a damning British parliamentary report labeled the powerful press tycoon unfit to run a major international company.

A committee of British legislators who have spent months investigating the phone hacking scandal involving one of Murdoch’s leading UK newspaper titles concluded this week with a majority verdict that the 81-year-old was “not a fit person” to be at the helm of News Corp.

Their findings grabbed attention not just in the UK but across the Atlantic, where headlines in the New York Times, Washington Post and Murdoch’s own Wall Street Journal must have made uncomfortable reading for News Corp. staff and shareholders.

The committee’s judgment carries no threat of sanction, but with lawsuits pending in the US over hacking and the threat of possible prosecution under the powerful Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, it will offer little in the way of reassurance.

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The scandal cost him one of his most lucrative titles — the tabloid News of the World — and resulted in possible criminal charges for his trusted lieutenant Rebekah Brooks and the arrest of a dozen reporters on his beloved Sun newspaper.

Now, Murdoch appears to be fighting back.

He and his son James were in the U.K. this week to face the Leveson inquiry, a judicial investigation into press standards, begun last year in the wake of revelations that journalists at Murdoch’s U.K. titles illegally hacked the voice mails of prominent public figures.

This time, he and his family appear to have turned on the British establishment, pressuring Prime Minister David Cameron and putting a key minister in the spotlight over a controversial business deal.

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The Brookses were arrested, along with four others, "on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice." This was the second time Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of the Sun and the now-shuttered News of the World, had been arrested -- the last time it was for conspiring to intercept communications, or "phone hacking" -- and this arrest suggests that News International's extensive efforts to cover up their unethical practices may end up damaging the company just as much as the unethical practices did.

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The rebellious shareholders include British MP Tom Watson, who was personally lied to by James Murdoch at a Parliamentary hearing, and various pension funds. Also present: The secretary of the ethical investment advisory group of the Church of England. The Church would like Murdoch removed as director of the company.

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CNBC averages 263,000 viewers during the workday, according to Nielsen. Fox Business tops off at 85,000 from 4:30 to 8 p.m., and that period includes daily shows hosted by Fox stars Lou Dobbs and Neil Cavuto. Fox Business executive vice president Kevin Magee had a great idea to finally turn things around, according to a memo Reuters obtained: Maybe focus more on business news?

"I've been asked to remind you all again that they are separate channels and the more we make FBN look like FNC the more of a disservice we do to ourselves," Magee said in the memo dated October 5, carrying the subject line "Fox News and Fox Business."

"I understand the temptation to imitate our sibling network in hopes of imitating its success, but we cannot," Magee went on to say in the memo. "If we give the audience a choice between FNC and the almost-FNC, they will choose FNC every time. Earnings, taxes, jobs etc give us PLENTY to chew on."

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Besides being good theater -- a giant check representing state tax cuts for the rich was left on the doorstep of hedge funder John Paulson's Upper East Side townhouse -- the march amounted to an attempt by veteran community and labor-affiliated activists to harness the intense media and popular interest in Occupy Wall Street to advance a specific progressive policy goal.

"We're not trying to grab the steering wheel. We're not trying to say Occupy Wall Street is all about one issue. But this is a concrete example of the kind of policies that are screwed up," said organizer Michael Kink, executive director of Strong Economy for All, a coalition of unions and community advocacy groups. "I think public opinion is galvanizing around Occupy," he added.

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News Corp is negotiating a settlement with the family of murdered teenager Milly Dowler which will likely cost News Corp and Rupert Murdoch millions of pounds. Even if the class action suit doesn't materialize, News Corp also has the Justice Department to worry about:

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As part of a pretaped satirical bit that was to air during the opening of the show, Emmy-winner Alec Baldwin played a fictional network president talking on the phone -- and worked in a zinger about Rupert Murdoch listening in. But Fox, which broadcast the show this year, apparently did not find the gag about its parent company amusing. On Thursday, Baldwin tweeted that "I did a short Emmy pretape a few days ago. Now they tell me News Corp may cut the funniest line. #NewsCorphumorlessaswellascorrupt"

That might have had something to do with the Murdoch empire's exhaustive and continuing phone hacking scandal in the U.K. – a stunning breach of privacy by News Corp that affected not just gossip-page celebrities but the families of soldiers and murder victims.

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Jonathan Chapman, the former director of legal affairs with News International, said Rupert Murdoch wasn't being accurate when he told Parliament that he blamed the London law firm Harbottle & Lewis for failing to uncover the scope of the hacking scandal back in 2007. News International is the British arm of Murdoch's global News Corp. media empire.

"I don't think Mr. Murdoch had his facts right," Chapman told lawmakers. "He was wrong."

Chapman was one of four executives fielding questions from Parliament's media committee about what they knew and when -- and all have already cast doubt on key aspects of the testimony given by the Murdoch family earlier this summer.

The hacking scandal has decimated Murdoch's British newspaper arm, leading to the closure of its top-selling Sunday tabloid, News of the World, and the arrests of more than a dozen journalists.

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Andy Coulson resigned from the now-defunct tabloid early in 2007 after a reporter and a private investigator were jailed for hacking into the voicemails of royal staff.

Six months later he was hired as communications chief to Cameron, then Britain's opposition leader. Cameron became prime minister in May 2010.

The BBC, without giving its source, reported that Coulson continued to receive severance pay amounting to several hundred thousand dollars from the paper until the end of 2007, and also kept his health care plan and company car.

Coulson denied knowing about phone hacking, but resigned from Downing St. in January after police reopened their inquiry into wrongdoing at the paper.

Last month he was arrested and questioned by detectives investigating allegations the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper illegally eavesdropped on the voicemail messages of celebrities, politicians and even murder victims.

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As the week began, a letter emerged alleging that senior News Corp. editors routinely discussed phone hacking -- suggesting that executives likely knew about their newspapers' illegal eavesdropping on voicemail messages of celebrities, politicians and crime victims. That revelation called into question whether Murdoch's son James, a senior executive, misled Parliament in his recent testimony, when he said he was unaware of the practice.

Then on Thursday, U.K. officials arrested a Hollywood correspondent for News of the World. The reporter had worked as the paper's Los Angeles based editor. That brought the scandal tantalizingly close to U.S. law enforcement, although the Guardian indicated that the alleged misdeeds took place in the U.K., before the suspect had arrived state-side.

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Police in London confirmed a 38-year-old man, who they declined to name, was arrested at a London police station after he arrived voluntarily Thursday. He is the 13th person to be arrested so far in the saga -- only one of those arrested has already been cleared.

Britain's Guardian newspaper reported the man was James Desborough, formerly the Los Angeles-based U.S. editor for the now-shuttered News of the World tabloid. The newspaper said his arrest was related to activities that took place before he moved to the United States.

Both News International, the British division of Murdoch's News Corp. empire that owned the tabloid, and London police declined to confirm that Desborough was the suspect now being questioned.

"We are fully cooperating with the police investigation and we are unable to comment further on matters due to ongoing police investigations," News International said in an e-mailed statement.

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The letter ... names names. As everyone has come to realize, every News of the World executive (many of whom went on to other jobs at Murdoch's News International -- or in the government!) knew about, endorsed or directly authorized illegal voice-mail hacking and all the rest. Specifically implicated this time: Andy Coulson, then the paper's editor, who was hired to be Prime Minister David Cameron's communications director last year. Coulson resigned in January and was arrested last month.

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Murdoch, who runs the European division of his father Rupert's media empire, testified last month that he was unaware of evidence of widespread phone hacking at the News of the World.

His testimony was disputed by former News of the World editor Colin Myler and ex-company lawyer Tom Crone.

Members of the Culture, Media and Sport committee said Tuesday they have not managed to reconcile the contradictions between those statements. Chief John Whittingdale says the committee "may wish to put further questions to James Murdoch."

There are no plans to recall Rupert Murdoch.

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Murdoch's stance came as the company reported that its net income fell in the last quarter by 22 percent, mainly because of the sale of money-losing social-networking site Myspace.

The phone hacking scandal and questions about Murdoch's control of News Corp. overshadowed the media giant's results, which beat expectations when excluding the Myspace sale.

Murdoch, 80, controls nearly 40 percent of News Corp.'s voting stock through a family trust. He said there would be no immediate changes to the board, rejecting assertions from journalists on a conference call about its lack of independence.

He also deflected questions about possible management changes at the top. He said he works together with Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey to run the company, and that there has been no change to a succession plan that foresees his son James Murdoch, 38, one day taking control.

"The board and I believe I should continue in my current role as chairman and CEO but make no mistake, Chase Carey and I run this company as a team," he said. He even joked when asked if the board would support James as CEO in the near future: "Well, I hope that the job won't be open in the near future."

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I just like ladies who have class. Period. And if it’s "T and A" you’re sellin’, that’s fine, as long as that’s what you’re selling. But you don’t have to show everything, you know? You can hold some back and just be yourself and let your personality shine and let your individuality show. To me, that’s sexier. A confident woman is a sexy woman, in my opinion. And I think guys find that to be the same way.

Leaving the question of sexuality aside, Latifah's advice is still solid, no matter which way you swing.

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The Metropolitan Police said a 71-year-old man was arrested by appointment Tuesday morning at a London police station.

He is in custody and being questioned on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and suspicion of corruption.

Detectives investigating claims the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper illegally eavesdropped on the phone massages of celebrities, politicians and even crime victims have previously arrested several former executives at his News Corp. including British newspaper chief Rebekah Brooks.

All have been released on bail and no one has yet been charged.

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Whoops:

Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter Sarah was abducted and murdered in July 2000, has been told by Scotland Yard that they have found evidence to suggest she was targeted by the News of the World's investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who specialised in hacking voicemail.

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Morgan got his start in newspapers with Rupert Murdoch. He worked for the Sun and edited News of the World in the early 1990s before moving on to edit the Labour Party-supporting Mirror.

Various people have alleged that phone-hacking was widespread among all the tabloids, and not just at News Corp.'s papers. There has so far been no direct proof of this, though it looks like that will soon change, as the BBC reports that it has "found evidence of possible hacking at the Sunday Mirror, and there are separate claims Daily Mirror journalists hacked voicemails."

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To be sure, the activities and actions of Murdoch’s that dominate the public conversation at the moment are deeply troubling, leaving aside their alleged criminality. Still, what is really pernicious about Murdoch is not his subordinates’ reported hacking of phones, payments of hush money, etc., or the possibility that Murdoch may have known about, tolerated, enabled, or even encouraged such acts.

It is, instead, the very essence of the man and his empire, and their long-term impact on our world and our lives. (For a detailed look at his practices, see for example this, this and this.)

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