The latest in the Rupert Murdoch/News of The World/News Corp/News International Phone hacking scandal finds the much-awaited release of the findings of the Leveson Inquiry damning of Rupert Murdoch and the Editors in charge at News Of The World.

In short, the Members Of Parliament found Rupert Murdoch had a curious habit of "looking the other way" with regards to the Phone Hacking Scandal. And as a result, was deemed by the panel to be "unfit to run an International Business".

Although the panel was split along Partisan lines - with four of the Conservative Members of Parliament voting not to include the "unfit to run a company" disclosure, they were unanimous in their agreement that Murdoch had mislead and deceived the Leveson Inquiry as to the true nature of the scandal.

In the report findings, aired over BBC Radio 4 's program PM, it was considered by some to be not all that earth shattering and that the scandal as a whole had more interest in Westminster than it did on the street.

Whether or not that's true remains to be seen. It's interesting to note that calls on this side of the Atlantic for an FCC inquiry into the operations of Murdoch's Fox News seem to have made more newsworthy headlines in the UK than over here. The move may be regarded as more symbolic than anything else, judging by the somewhat punchless and ineffectual state the FCC is in. However, there is still the ongoing DOJ Investigation of Phone Hacking and Bribery charges involving News Of The World related cases over here.

And all that lurks somewhere in the future.

But for now, Westminster has spoken and Rupert Murdoch's school of Tabloid Journalism received a slap on its faux-incompetent wrist.

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In a not-terribly-surprising turn of events, it was announced today that James Murdoch would be stepping down from his duties at News International, while retaining his duties with Newscorp, overseeing International Pay-TV operations and maintaining his Chair position at BSkyB.

This news follows word that Rupert Murdoch returned to the UK to run operations that included the launch of the Sunday edition of The Sun.

Amid speculation that James has now been banished from the Murdoch empire and that Rupert, upset over James insistence to shut News Of The World, got back in the drivers seat and assumed control thus making James no longer heir apparent to the Empire.

Of course, no one is out of the woods yet. There is still the looming investigation of phone hacking and bribery extending over to these shores, which has yet to become an actual case. Meanwhile, there are still some 6,000 (yes, six THOUSAND) outstanding phone hacking cases pending, which should keep everyone busy for the foreseeable future.

Here are two reports - the first from BBC Radio 4's PM Program and the second via The Six O'Clock News.

As they say, stay tuned.

As the Leveson Inquiry reconvened this Monday morning, new allegations and reports of more arrests in connection with the phone hacking scandal via Rupert Murdoch's News International publications surfaced. Today's blast was aimed at Editors and Journalists working for The Sun, which had just began publishing on a seven-day-a-week basis the previous day. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers told members of the Inquiry of massive sums being paid to officials in just about every segment of the government for bribes in obtaining information. Sums being paid over long periods of time and sometimes running into the hundreds of thousands of Pounds.

All this hot on the heels of a settlement between Newscorp and singer Charlotte Church who was the target of extensive phone hacking since 2002. The settlement accepted by Church was in the neighborhood of £600,000. She read a statement, blasting Newscorp for fostering a climate of corruption and knowingly ruining the lives of innocent people.

This report, via BBC Radio 4's PM program, gives details of the goings on today and what's in store over the coming days.

And on and on it goes . . .

With news today of the abrupt resignation of James Murdoch from his position at Newscorp, it comes as something of a postscript to the continuing Leveson Hearings on Phone Hacking in the Media.

With a seemingly endless list of victims, the latest to be questioned were Kate and Gerry McCann, whose missing daughter while on vacation conjured up probably the worst the tabloid press was capable of.

Although the Murdoch papers are implicated, it was also learned that the method of phone hacking was not the exclusive property of Newscorp or News International. As suspected, it became something of the norm to utilize phone hacking techniques in order to "get a leg up" on the competition for salacious details. The McCann's testimony offered horrifying proof that the press, at least in the UK, had sunk to its lowest level since the turn of the previous century, and in doing so offered some proof that journalism and morals were seldom on speaking terms of late.

Here, by way of the extraordinary daily program PM from BBC Radio 4 are the highlights of todays testimony and reports from the hearing room.

Oh, the Fourth Estate . . . .

Characterized as something of a tossup between an inept Mafia Don and a morally bankrupt enabler, James Murdoch went again before the Parliamentary committee investigating charges of phone hacking at the defunct News Of The World today. Not expecting any revelations, the committee pressed forward on contradictory testimony given by Murdoch previously with regards to settlement payments to phone hacking victims.

The biggest bone of contention centered around the now infamous "For Neville" e-mail which outlined widespread phone hacking within the News Of the World organization and whether Murdoch knew and didn't care or really didn't know and was therefore inept at running a company of that size. Murdoch rejected Labour MP Tom Watson's assertion that News Of the World had adopted a Mafia "Omerta" code of silence with regards to the practice.

The "stuck between a rock and a hard place" scenario had many wondering just how this testimony would go. But after 2 1/2 hours of grilling and testimony, the committee were left with probably more questions than answers and no doubt many more months of investigating to lie ahead with new revelations just around the corner.

At last count, there were some 300 million (yes, Million) e-mails Scotland yard was sifting through involving some 5,700 people who were believed to be hacked. At present, only 600 victims have been interviewed.

Needless to say - the legs on this story aren't getting any shorter. Although it isn't believed there will be any more public hearings after today.

Here is a wrapup of the days hearings via BBC Radio 4's PM Program which ran at 5:00 pm in London (9:00 am Los Angeles time).

Todays latest on the saga of Murdoch comes minus radio reports, as the BBC is currently on strike in their news divisions and the regularly scheduled information programs are replaced by bare-bones minimum news headlines.

But suffice to say it's been an interesting Monday, leading in from the weekend, where BkyB reportedly gave a vote of confidence to James Murdoch and the go ahead to stay as head of the unit (for now). That said, there have been reports the past several days, and surfacing again today that a movement is afoot by disgruntled shareholders in Newscorp that Rupert Murdoch should be unseated and relinquish his power-grip on the empire. A civil suit has been filed by shareholders. This is all based on gathered evidence that suggests Newscorp did in fact hack the phones of 9/11 victims Stateside, although the Attorney General has yet to issue a report on any findings. The storm clouds are more than gathering on this side of the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, back in the UK - It was reported to The Guardian today that Tech firm HCL has uncovered evidence it was aware of thousands of deleted e-mails from News International between April 2010 and July 2011. Although HCL adds it was not directly responsible for the mass deletion, but said an as-yet unnamed vendor was responsible and that HCL merely cooperated with the vendor with deletions. All registering surprise, please raise you hands. Yeah, I thought so.

It just continues to get more interesting as the hours and days past.

Of course, my immediate question, with regards to our Stateside investigations, is how much mass deletion has taken place over here, particularly since the UK story broke and all attention was was directed to the goings on in London? Certainly several weeks/months of heads-up could wipe out an immense amount of damaging information.

Hopefully the strike will be over soon at the BBC (two weeks ago it was a 24 hour walk out) and more light will be shed by tomorrow.

Until then. It doesn't even do any good to use your imagination, unless you have your feet firmly planted in the absurd.

One would think that, Sunday being the day of rest and all, there would be very little in the way of breaking or astonishing news. Sunday is supposed to be the day reserved for punditry and reflection in the news media.

Not so with this Tsunami currently washing up around the Murdoch Empire. The latest is the "arrest by appointment" of Rebekah Brooks, until yesterday CEO of News International and former Editor of News Of The World. How this bodes for the anticipated Tuesday Hearings is anyone's guess, but all bets are it can't be good.

And less than five hours later another bomb was dropped over London. This one in the form of the resignation by London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, over allegations of his involvement in the scandal and subsequent bribery charges. Although plainly stated (in this live-as-it-happened news conference), Stephenson was stepping down because he was concerned the focal point was no longer on the story but on him, time will only tell what the real set of circumstances are. The way things are going, it's almost impossible to speculate or even make stuff up.

So, in case you were feeling a need for a Rupertgate fix today, I thought I would run the initial news report (top player) on the arrest of Rebekah Brooks and the bottom player is the news leading up to the Stephenson Press Conference. Initially, it was thought to be just a press conference on the unfolding Brooks story by the Metro Police and the disclosure of Stephenson resigning was truly a bombshell.

As it seems to be true with this story, it is changing daily and almost hourly and there are hints the list of arrests will be considerably longer as the days go on. In the midst of all this, there are now very vocal calls for the removal of James Murdoch from the Board of Directors at News International as well as proposals for the breaking up of the Murdoch Empire in the UK and the very strong possibility, even among the British Press and punditry, that the story will be just as horrifying and nasty when it finally lands on our shores.

But you sort of guessed that, didn't you?

So here is your dose of Rupertgate from LBC in London for today, July 17. BTW - every news outlet in the UK and Europe (and one imagines the US) will be running the Hearings on Tuesday around 6:30 am PDT.

The Scandal That Keeps On Scandalizing. The latest today (as of 9:00 am PDT) includes the abrupt resignation of News International Chief Executive and former editor of News Of The World Rebekah Brooks, in the wake of upcoming questioning before Parliament next Tuesday. Her replacement is former Sky Italia Chief Tom Mockridge, fresh from doing battle with Berlusconi over Television dominance in Italy. Rupert Murdoch held a Mea Culpa session with the parents of murdered girl Mily Dowler, some say the catalytic episode in this scandal. No cameras allowed. And it was also disclosed this morning that disgraced and now jailed former Editor of NotW and Communications director for David Cameron Andy Coulson was vacationing at the Cameron's Country Home as late as March of this year, two months after his resignation. And Attorney General Eric Holder, disclosed during a Press Conference in Sydney that the FBI and other not-as-yet-named investigators were looking in to the possible hacking of 9/11 victims phones.

A sea of tips and an ocean of icebergs. Doubtless more as the hours pass.

Owing to the 24 hour Strike by the Broadcast Journalists Union at the BBC, only the One O'Clock News was available in a truncated version and PM wasn't broadcast at all (perfect timing . . .not). The rest of this post is made up of the minutes leading up to the 5 o'clock news and the James Whale Program via LBC, the commercial News/Talk station in London. Interesting dialogue going on over there no matter where you go. And they have commercials . . . lots of them. I tried cutting down the amount of extraneous stuff, but had to let some slip by in order to get this post up. Bear with it. The strike should be over soon.

As it was reported less than an hour ago (at 9:00 am PDT), both James and Rupert Murdoch will be appearing before the Home Affairs Select Committee regarding the scandal, the fallout and the firestorm.

While momentum has been building and speculation increasing over what possible or probable repercussions are to be had here in the U.S. still remain to be seen, news and events surrounding this scandal are not going away in the UK anytime soon.

If anything, the Hearings, starting with Rebekah Brooks next Tuesday, should be interesting. Whether they will shed any light on what has been a long-running method of operation and a style of doing business is still a big question mark.

Here is the latest news as reported on the BBC 4 program PM, including an extended interview with Vince Cable, another figure who entanglements with Newscorp/News International cost him considerably.

The day ain't over and anything can still happen. And true to form, it just may.

Stay tuned.

Since news broke of the shutting of News Of The World, amidst the growing scandal involving that paper and the Murdoch Empire for that matter, the airwaves in the UK were filled with programs discussing the issue at length and offering a wide range of scenarios for the future.

One program offered up a Special Edition shortly after the closure was announced. The Media Show is a BBC Radio 4 program devoted entirely to issues regarding all facets of Information and Entertainment. On this segment the talk was exclusively about the news just breaking and speculation over what it spelled out for the future. The answers are wide and varied and the general opinion was to wait and see - it could all change by next Wednesday.

Here is that special edition of The Media Show as first broadcast on July 8th and repeated here in its entirety.

Just remember, it could all change and head in a different direction by next week.