Murdoch, Sons Survive Shareholder Vote

(Newser) – News Corp's shareholder meeting went pretty much as expected: Rupert Murdoch and sons took plenty of heat but survived a long-shot bid to oust them from control, reports the Los Angeles Times. The tally will be released next week, but given that the Murdoch family controls 40% of voting shares, the outcome hadn't been in much doubt. Still, critics got a chance to vent about Murdoch's stewardship of the conglomerate—which includes Fox News, 20th Century Fox, and the Wall Street Journal—in the wake of the massive phone-hacking scandal in Britain.

"You should get with the program and embrace a board with more independent board members," said one Australian shareholder. And British MP Tom Watson warned that another scandal was on the horizon, notes AP, this time involving the hacking of a former army intelligence officer in Britain. Murdoch fended off the criticism: "I'm very proud of the culture of this company," he said. "Have there been mistakes made? Yes, and we are putting them right. We will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of this and make things right." Brit paper the Guardian sees the shareholder criticism as a "major blow" to Murdoch. It also expects son James to have fared the worst in voting.