Unfortunately, I think you're right, better to let it be remembered for one particular moment when someone caught him with a difficult question than some plonker throwing custard pies. Personally, I would have used a glass of water. More impact and better range. Not that I see the need to do it at all, it is better to watch someone fail than to humiliate yourself more than him.
I quite agree - though from the few extracts I have seen - presumably chosen as the "best" bits - the two Murdochs were handling the situation quite well.
Age is not the issue, he has a lot to answer for and not just the crap his newspapers print, we all think he is a old man however he rules News Corp with an iron fist. Just ask those printers who lost there jobs at News International in 1985.
I think there is an interesting point there, that i have never actually seen addressed. What is it that Murdoch himself has to answer for? I suspect the chief reason for "hating" him amongst the leftist/liberal groups does have a tap root in the 1986 dispute (where intransigent workers refused to change in the face of new technology and refused meaningful negotiation - a familiar story across all industries at that time - and lost when other workers took over), but that is a quarter of a century ago. Apart from owning what I believe is an inappropriate share of British media, is there anything that he, as an individual, has done to abuse that position, that any other multi-company Chairman has not?
I do believe that the current "crisis" reveals a corruption that runs through society in the UK today. Not so much anyone being "bent", but the parallel assumptions that the end justifies the means and that holding a position of authority means that you should not be challenged when you use that authority in illegitimate ways. It is not just press, politicians, police - look at Network Rail yet again buying off whistleblowers, football managers using press conferences to influence referees, army brass covering up bullying at Deepcut. And, of course, we, the general public, are happy for it to go on, so long as we have our occasional circus.
