Current TV, Bloomberg Cover 'Murdoch's Mess'

Both Bloomberg TV and Current TV will provide live coverage of Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch's testimonies before Parliament Tuesday, starting at 9:30 a.m.,

Bloomberg, which is billing it as coverage of "Murdoch's Mess," said it would follow that live coverage with a 9:30 p.m. wrap-up of the days' testimony and news, plus a roundtable discussion.

Bloomberg was not mincing any words. In a release announcing its coverage, it described that "Mess" involving the parent of one of its cable news competitors as a "growing scandal that has besieged a nation, halted Parliament, tainted Scotland Yard and rippled across the pond to put News Corporation's future in jeopardy -- wiping out nearly $6 billion in shareholder value."

Current TV's Keith Olbermann will host morning coverage of the testimonies at 9:15 a.m., with commentary from John Dean, former White House counsel to President Richard Nixon. A two-hour "highlight edition" will follow at 9 p.m.

The pond-ripples have not yet resulted in any requests for Murdoch to testify in the U.S., though that could change if the story of hacking by its British newspaper, now shuttered, implicates any U.S. news operation. There have been calls for SEC, Justice and congressional investigations, and a report that the FBI was looking into the phone-hacking scandal.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.