What Did Murdoch Know?

A friend asks: Do I believe that Rupert Murdoch knew about the phone-hacking by News International. I answered that "knowing" is a very elastic concept.

If a lawyer tells a CEO, "If your company does X bad thing and you don't know about it, you can go to jail," why then he'll take steps to know.

If a laywer says, "If such a bad thing does happen, and we can prove that you didn't know, then you don't go to jail," he'll find ways not to know.

So my guess is that it will be settled that Rupert Murdoch didn't "know."

Not so sure about James Murdoch, however.