By Kevin McCauley
News Corp. received a “major black eye” from the phone hacking scandal at the now shuttered News of the World, CEO Rupert Murdoch wrote in his letter to shareholders in the just published 2011 annual report.
“As I said at a Parliamentary hearing, this episode has been the most humbling of my career, " he wrote. "Let me be clear: the behavior carried out by some employees of News of the World is unacceptable and does not represent who we are as a Company.
"It went against everything that I stand for. That behavior betrayed not only our readers, but also the many thousands of magnificent professionals in every one of our other divisions around the world. It was a painful decision to shut down the News of the World, but it was the right thing to do,” he wrote.
Murdoch credits the board of directors and senior management for acting decisively to get to the bottom of what happened. “We will do whatever is necessary to prevent something like this from ever occurring again. We will put things right.”
The 80-year-old leader sees a bright future, notwithstanding the difficult chapter represented by NOTW.
He gives high praise to Fox News boss Roger Ailes and his team for building “television’s undisputed news leader – not just in cable network news, but in all television news.” Fox celebrates its 15th anniversary this year.
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