Rupert Murdoch was attacked by a protester on Tuesday while giving evidence to a British parliamentary committee at which he defended his son and his company over a scandal that has rocked the British establishment.
After two and half hours of evidence from the 80-year-old magnate and his 38-year-old son James, a man appeared to rise from the public area of the committee room and tried to hit the elder Murdoch with a “custard pie” — a dish of white foam.
As James rose and police moved in, watched live by millions on television, Rupert Murdoch’s 42-year-old wife Wendi Deng, who had been sitting right behind her husband, leaped forward to slap the man. He was hauled away and the session suspended.
Ten minutes later, the session resumed with an apology from the chairman and a comment from one lawmaker that the Murdochs had shown “immense guts” to continue taking questions.
