Joe Hildebrand, a columnist for Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp. in Australia, has come under fire for a series of tweets that mock the mentally handicapped, the “retarded,” the Irish, and blondes. It all started with a tweet about airport personnel, but Hildebrand’s reaction to criticism of his remark escalated into a full-on “politically incorrect” display of shamelessness that had one colleague calling him “a disgrace.”

Bad news for Emmy viewers who were hoping to catch Alec Baldwin tonight– an off-color phone hacking joke seems to have prompted the actor of abandon the project, leaving a trail of angry tweets behind him. The drama started last Thursday, when Baldwin was notified that a joke about the Murdoch phone hacking scandal may have been cut from an introductory comedy bit. With that rumor confirmed tonight, the actor is boycotting the Emmys and, apparently, spending the night at his trusty keyboard instead.

Michael Wolff, author of a biography of Rupert Murdoch, has told Reuters that Murdoch–and his family–must go. “I don’t think this company can go forward–both News International and News Corporation–with the Murdochs running it.” Wolff believes the legendary Murdoch name itself has, after weeks of scandal surrounding phone hacking and the closing of the company’s News of the World, become toxic. “I think the Murdochs have to, and will, step out of not only day to day running it, but they won’t have jobs.” Wolff says that will likely happen within 60 days.

As the network’s main media analysis show, Fox News Watch has taken the most heat for its coverage of the News of the World phone hacking scandal. This week, they had plenty more material to work with– Rupert Murdoch‘s testimony to Parliament and the feud between a British MP and CNN host Piers Morgan taking up the bulk of the conversation. While concluding crimes must be paid for, the panel agreed that other media entities were “piling on” to News Corp out of a sense of competition.

With the investigation into News Corporation heating up as Parliament began hearings this week, the threat has surfaced to other UK tabloids of investigation into their practices, as well. On tonight’s In the Arena, Mediaite founder and ABC legal analyst Dan Abrams argued that a more extensive investigation “has to be good” for New Corp, as any findings would widen the scope to the tabloid culture, and not just News Corp.

Rupert Murdoch doesn’t have many friends left. After, in his words, the most humble day of his life, the testimony he gave before Parliament about the scandal that brought down News of the World seems to have done little to ingratiate him with an outraged public. The backlash has tempted many to go after all of News Corp and the press in general, with the rage perhaps most succinctly captured by this outrageous title in the L.A. Times today: “Tabloids Don’t Deserve the First Amendment.”

As Rupert Murdoch News Corporation hacking scandal continues to unravel, the manner in which his properties will cover the development continue to be of high interest. On tonight’s Factor, Bill O’Reilly did not skirt around the issue engulfing his parent company, though he and his guest agreed that a “witch hunt” had begun after Murdoch, one that may have given the false impression that American News Corp properties were in danger.

As the Murdoch Empire corruption scandal continues to unfold, the Wall Street Journal, one of its biggest entities, received plenty of mockery for a defensive editorial published today defending its leader and accusing rival organizations of excessive schadenfreude. It pales in comparison, however, to what some Murdoch entities overseas have penned– take, for instance, this blistering editorial in Murdoch’s The Australian, which throws the kitchen sink at Murdoch’s enemies.

As Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corporation appears to veer closer and closer to being entirely engulfed by its corruption scandal in the UK, the defenses have risen in volume, with Wall Street Journal leading the charge in America with a scathing editorial this morning. But the odds are high that the tactic may backfire, argued Mediaite founder Dan Abrams to Don Lemon this evening, as the offensive defense could be interpreted as downplaying a scandal that, according to many in the media, has achieved Watergate proportions.

Just as one of the most popular search terms following the Casey Anthony verdict was “Nancy Grace reaction,” schadenfreude-enthusiasts are eagerly looking to all News Corp. outlets today to see how they’re covering the shuttering of their corporate cousin News of the World amidst massive phone-hacking allegations. So, how are the rest of the Rupert Murdoch-owned outlets tackling this family embarrassment?

A video has been uploaded to YouTube which shows a couple of young people running up to the home of Fox News, the News Corporation offices in New York. As they’re filming, an unseen friend of theirs apparently hacks into the large, scrolling sign out front, changing it from the headlines to a lengthy message about how conservatives are lying to Americans and trying to destroy the country’s unions. The YouTube user who uploaded the video, entitled “Fox News Got HACKED. REAL.,” claims in the comments and title that he is the hacker and that this really happened. So…did it?

When Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation took over Beliefnet in 2007, some feared that the site known for its ecumenical approach to religion and faith would turn into a Fox News-styled mouthpiece for social and religious conservatives. With the storied site now sold and some people writing its obituary, it appears that Beliefnet was harmed not by becoming Fox, but instead by becoming too much like O, the Oprah Magazine full of self-help columns and vague spirituality.

Now that the wave of 2009/end of the decade retrospectives are over, it’s time for predictions for the year to come. Wired co-founding editor and current Federated Media CEO John Battelle has a particularly thought-provoking set. Among the most intriguing: that in 2010, web search won’t quite die off, but it will deteriorate such that people “question search’s validity as a service.”

The “Hulu for magazines” joint venture spearheaded by John Squires officially has a name: Next Issue Media. According to Folio, the partnership has some real heavyweights behind it: Time Inc., Meredith, Hearst, Condé Nast and News Corporation. All of which represent some serious old media muscle, but will they be able to compete in the digital marketplace?

Rupert Murdoch dropped the hint that he was thinking about pulling The Wall Street Journal’s content from Google earlier this week, decrying them and other aggregators as “parasites.” Conveniently overlooked: plenty of News Corporation sites pull content from other sites, some extensively.

The stateside advertising boycott of Glenn Beck‘s show following his remarks on Obama’s supposed ‘racism’ may not have had as big a financial impact on Fox as the boycotters might like you to believe, but anti-Beck sentiment continues to ripple out in unexpected ways. Case in point: Waitrose, which the AFP describes as “Britain’s most upmarket supermarket chain,” has pulled all advertisements from Fox News sister channel Sky News in response to complaints about Beck’s show.