the_archfiend | Murdochistan continues to be vastly amusing

One of these days, an actual reason may be given as to why anyone could trust James Murdoch, former employees currently being thrown under the bus included:

James Murdoch insisted Tuesday that he knew little about the scale of phone hacking by people working for the News of the World, as he continued his fight to limit the damage the scandal does to him and his family's media empire.

Underlings did not tell him how pervasive it was when he took over News Corp.'s British newspaper publishing arm, he said.

He agreed with a suggestion that the reason was because they knew he would put a stop to it.

Oh, sure he would. Just like any Fleet Street yellow journalist from any number of papers would "put a stop to" salacious material that they make their biggest money on.

On the other hand, underlings are underlings. Explain why a current minister in the British government would be this stupid:

Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, has begged the Leveson inquiry to give him a chance to salvage his reputation after emails released by News Corp appeared to show that Hunt and his office passed confidential and market-sensitive information to the Murdoch empire to support its takeover of BSkyB.

Facing calls from the Labour leader Ed Miliband to resign, Hunt urged Lord Justice Leveson to change his hearings timetable and give him a chance to clear his name.

As the day-long questioning of James Murdoch ended, Hunt rushed to a meeting with David Cameron and the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, to explain the emails and texts that appeared to show he ignored his commitment to MPs to act in a quasi-judicial and impartial capacity over the £8bn bid, one that only failed in the wake of the Milly Dowler phone-hacking furore.

If Hunt got paid, that's one thing. That's merely greed at work. If he did it for love (translation: he was so close to the Murdochs and News Corp that questions of impropriety more or less became questions of incest, even if it's merely the corporate variety) then he's an even bigger idiot.