What did Wendi Deng first see in the billionaire Rupert Murdoch? It's the oldest joke in the book and one that has long been directed at this relationship – by everyone from supposedly hostile Murdoch family members, who have expressed their disdain since the media mogul tied the knot with her on his yacht, Morning Glory, in 1999, to the media and the world at large.

But if octogenarian Murdoch's fumbling – and even at times confused – performance at the House of Commons on Tuesday was surprising, it paled into insignificance, in terms of theatrics at least, of his third wife. The impeccably groomed and until that point inscrutable Deng leapt to his defence, unceremoniously slapping the improbably named "pie man", Jonnie Marbles, and thereby deflecting his assault long before anyone as effective as a security guard, say, had the good sense to intervene.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/wendi-deng-the-real-power-behind-the-throne-2317692.html

Andy Coulson did not face the rigorous government security checks into his background that most recent Downing Street press chiefs have undergone, it emerged on Wednesday.

The former News of the World editor was granted only mid-level security clearance when he was appointed by David Cameron as his director of communications, so avoiding "developed vetting" involving a detailed interview by government investigators looking for anything in his past that could compromise him.

The checks would have involved a review of his personal finances and cross-examination by investigators of referees, who could include friends and family. Coulson would have been asked by government vetters, some of whom are former police officers, such questions as: "Is there anything else in your life you think it appropriate for us to know?"

Alastair Campbell and Dave Hill, who ran communications for Tony Blair, and Michael Ellam, who did the same job for Gordon Brown when he was prime minister, were all subject to the more rigorous checks which are said to be in part targeted at uncovering potentially damaging secrets in an employee's background.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/20/andy-coulson-security-clearance-checks

The reaction also reflects the anger of politicians who long have been intimidated by the tactics of aggressive tabloids and who have felt the need to curry favor with powerful media barons, especially Murdoch, to win the support of those newspapers and to shield against their intrusive reporting.

In Britain, money plays a smaller role in politics than it does in the United States, and politicians have few ways to communicate effectively with the public outside the media filter. Television advertising plays no significant role in campaigns; for the most part, it is not allowed.

An American politician who feels aggrieved by the media can buy television spots to answer them. His British counterparts have no such option. Elected officials must depend on the good graces of newspapers for favorable coverage.

Murdoch is not the only owner of a British newspaper whose employees have used questionable methods in pursuit of sensational stories and political influence, although what the News of the World did has shocked even the cynics.

But as the biggest and most powerful of those media owners, with a reputation built over three decades, he is paying for his and the industry’s sins. This scandal has provided the vehicle for potentially broader retribution.

Where the criminal and political inquiries underway in Britain will lead can’t be fully known, but they almost certainly will diminish his power, which in turn could result in a change in the posture of politicians toward the media in general.

read more at http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fury-at-rupert-murdoch-reflects-pent-up-anger-of-intimidated-politicians/2011/07/21/gIQAqDkiSI_print.html

Ed Miliband is considering demands by MPs for the judge in charge of the phone-hacking inquiry to be removed from his post after reports that he had socialised with members of Rupert Murdoch's family.

Sources close to the Labour leader said he shared the concerns raised over the impartiality of Lord Justice Leveson after it emerged that the judge attended two parties at the London home of Elisabeth Murdoch, the News Corporation chairman's daughter who is regarded as the heir to the business, and her husband, Matthew Freud.

David Cameron knew about the parties before appointing Lord Leveson to chair the inquiry into the scandal, Downing Street admitted.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/miliband-mulls-mps-demands-to-remove-hackinginquiry-judge-2319555.html

Andy Coulson was cleared for work at No 10 Downing Street last year after an investigator who had also done work for News International (NI) carried out his vetting, the IoS can reveal.

Mr Coulson, David Cameron's media chief, who resigned in January as the phone-hacking scandal developed, was scrutinised by an experienced investigator with strong links to both the Security Services and to the newspaper group that owned the News of the World, which Mr Coulson had previously edited.

The revelation is certain to renew controversy about Mr Cameron's 2007 decision to appoint Mr Coulson months after the former journalist's resignation as editor of the paper when two men were sent to prison for phone hacking.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/coulson-vetted-by-investigator-linked-to-news-international-2333257.html

News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch has filed for divorce from Wendi Deng Murdoch, the mother of his two youngest children and a woman seen as a key player in the media empire.

The news, first reported by Deadline Hollywood and confirmed by a spokesman, brings to an end the media mogul's third marriage.

Murdoch, 82, met Deng in 1997 at a company party in Hong Kong. They were married two years later, less than a month after his divorce from ex-wife Anna Murdoch was finalised after 32 years of marriage.

The couple are believed to have filed for joint custody of their children but there were no details of any settlement. Murdoch has cited irretrievable breakdown in marriage for more than six months as the reason for the divorce. In the divorce filing released on Wednesday, Murdoch's lawyers said that the "relationship between husband and wife had broken down irretrievably".

Deng, born in China and educated at Yale, has been credited with a makeover of her mogul partner, introducing him to a younger, more tech-savvy set of friends including the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter's co-founder Jack Dorsey.

They married on 25 June 1999 in a twilight ceremony on board Murdoch's garland-bedecked yacht, the Morning Glory, in New York Harbor. Welsh singing star Charlotte Church (who it later emerged waived a £100,000 fee) serenaded the couple with a trio of ballads. Deng, now 44, went on to shake up his wardrobe and join a rarefied social circle of Hollywood celebrities and chief executives.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jun/13/rupert-murdoch-divorce-wendi-deng