New evidence that the News of the World covered up phone hacking at the paper has been brought to light in the form of a letter sent from a former editor at the paper to a human resources director at News International, contesting his firing from the paper by claiming “other members of staff were carrying out the same legal procedures.”

Shares of News Corp. rose Thursday–up nearly 17 percent by 1 p.m.–as traders reacted to Rupert Murdoch’s quarterly earnings conference call Wednesday afternoon. On the call, Murdoch vowed to remain in place as CEO despite the ongoing investigation into the company’s involvement in phone hacking, and reported a healthy profit. “We have the most robust balance sheet in our history,” Mr. Murdoch said, reporting 2.7 billion dollars in earnings for the fiscal year that ended June 30, up from 2.5 billion the year before.

News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch wants you to know his Fox Business Network’s not losing money anymore. On an earnings call Wednesday, Murdoch described the four-year old business channel as reaching “cash break even” status–not losing money, but not making money either. At the time of FBN’s 2007 launch, the network projected breaking even within five years, so executives see the milestone as a victory even as CNBC continues to dominate the cable business news niche. “Fox Business has made great strides,” News Corp. president Chase Carey said on the earnings call.

On Time‘s Swampland blog today, Massimo Calabresi reveals something interesting about Viet Dinh, the man handpicked by Rupert Murdoch to oversee News Corp.’s internal probe into allegations of phone hacking. During his first week at Harvard, Dinh began a long, ongoing friendship with Preet Bharara — who just so happens to be the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the person leading the U.S.’s investigation into News Corp.

Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of embattled mogul Rupert Murdoch, has announced she will not be joining the board of her father’s News Corp. company at this time. Her father had originally announced his daughter’s plans to seek a position on the board following the sale of her company, Shine Group, to News Corp. back in March. Her brother Lachlan and James Murdoch are both currently on the company’s board. Unlike her father and brother James, Elisabeth has not been a focus in the ongoing investigations into the family’s part in an alleged phone hacking scheme to obtain information about story subjects.

Adweek‘s Michael Wolff, who has previously used organized crime as a metaphor to explain Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp., expands on the “mafia” metaphor in a new article that portrays Murdoch as the ultimate boss around whom the entire corporate structure has been built. “It’s an organization all about doing what Rupert wants you to do, or doing what you imagine Rupert wants you to do, or doing what you imagine your boss imagines Rupert wants done. There are few companies as large as News Corp. that are so devoted and in thrall to one man.”

Justice, friends, flies swiftly, like a shaving cream pie through space or Wendi Deng‘s fist through a smug expression. Unless you are the family of a murdered teen girl who was given false hope that she might still be living, of course. In which case: Not so swift!

In any case, Jonathan “Jonnie Marbles” May-Bowles — possibly better known as “the guy who threw a pie at Rupert Murdoch” — has been sentenced to jail for his actions. May-Bowles had pleaded guilty to having assualted Murdoch during his hearing. He will spend three weeks of his six week-long sentence in prison and will have to pay $407 in costs, as well as a $25 “victim’s fee.”

Yesterday, we shared New York magazine writer Frank Rich‘s article chronicling his own and others’ experiences with what he referred to as “bullying” on the part of Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp and its employees. Rich accused the company, which he referred to as a “media colossus,” as routinely resorting to intimidation in its continued attempts to maximize power and silence critics. Rich paid a visit to Joy Behar‘s HLN show to discuss his experiences further and to issue a warning that the “whole Murdoch culture” has spread to the United States.

New York magazine’s Frank Rich has offered an in-depth look at how Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corp. — currently deeply embroiled in a hacking scandal involving the company’s now-defunct UK newspaper News of the World — also had a hand in several less-than-aboveboard practices on this side of the pond.

In 1976, at the dawn of his career, Rich found himself working for the Post when the paper was sold to a then little-known (here in the States, at any rate) Murdoch. The crux of Rich’s piece lies not in bolstering the “us versus them” narrative espoused by many in the “mainstream media,” but on zeroing in on how the Murdoch empire systematically abuses power in order to further an agenda, even if this abuse should happen to break the law.

Current TV host Keith Olbermann, writing for The Guardian, describes the experience of being hired–and fired–by Rupert Murdoch. “From my vantage point,” Olbermann writes, “the most important fact remains that, after my exit, Rupert had to keep paying me not to have to work for him: $800,000 over the next eight months. It was the best job I ever had.” Olbermann, who was hired by Murdoch to be part of an expanded Fox Sports cable effort that included Olbermann hosting a nightly show to compete against ESPN’s legendary SportsCenter–an effort Olbermann describes as one of Murdoch’s “first abject failures in American television.” Olbermann says the failure was the result of multiple mistakes on the part of bosses at News Corp.: “for once, Murdoch’s mafia failed him.”

One of the nice things about having a Bill of Rights is that it specifically lays out freedoms given to the people and the press. The U.S. Constitution declares that freedom of speech and freedom of the press can never be infringed upon. Unfortunately, if you live in a nation where this is not clearly stated, you can legally censor media outlets without fear or repercussion.

…Actually, she wrote “apologise,” but we helpfully translated it into American. British writer and Member of Parliament Louise Mensch is currently enjoying (“enjoying”) some time in the U.S.’s media spotlight not only for her role in the British government’s inquiry into Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch‘s roles in / knowledge of News of the World‘s [...]

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.

In a bizarre twist to the story, the mission to find evidence of CNN’s Piers Morgan engaging in dirty tabloid behavior has become something of a side quest to the current News Corp hacking scandal. Morgan has denied any hacking, and, with the exception of alleged audio confessions, nothing has surfaced. Tonight, the Daily Beast thought they had finally found the holy grail of the Murdoch scandal– an old BBC interview where he admits it went on, but notes that “not a lot of that went on,” and “the net of people doing it was very wide.”

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.

In addition to Republican presidential pledges, tonight on Real Time Bill Maher re-tackled another subject he addressed last week: the woes of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. To help him grasp just what kind of power Murdoch’s built up over the years, Maher invited British writer/producer/marketing expert Martin Lewis on the program.

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.

Chris Wallace spoke with Don Imus this morning and shared his thoughts on Michele Bachmann‘s headaches and the News Corp. phone hacking scandal. While Imus found some laughs in each story, Wallace said Bachmann’s migraines should not disqualify her from running for President and insisted Fox News is giving plenty of attention to the controversy with its parent company.

The characters involved in the Rupert Murdoch News Corporation scandal have captivated Jon Stewart‘s imagination– “News Corp Owner Montgomery Burns,” his “crimefighting wife, Wendi,” and, perhaps especially, the UK’s Parliament, a shouty horde of righteous politicians. Repeatedly shouting that “England is awesome!”, Stewart noted that PM David Cameron had left a vacation to return to Parliament, while, he lamented, “we can still only get [Obama] on voicemail.”

NMA News, the organization that prides itself on animating ludicrous renditions of top news stories, has kept mostly mum lately, churning out comparatively tame stories on Jennifer Lopez and”Lama drama.” It took a force as fierce as Wendi Deng, Rupert Murdoch‘s wife, to awaken the best/worst in NMA once again, with a reanimation of her reaction to yesterday’s pie attack that includes, for some reason, a rendition of attacker Jonnie Marbles being mauled by a tiger and a glimpse into the Murdoch’s bedroom.

Yesterday, the testimony of Rupert and James Murdoch was briefly interrupted when a man attempted (and failed) to throw a shaving cream “pie” into the elder mogul’s face. Many have described the attempted pieing harshly, calling it “stupid,” “pointless,” and “a waste of time” (these aren’t direct quotes of anyone in particular, I’m just making an educated guess that someone somewhere said those things) while the perpetrator himself, a comedian and activist named Jonnie Marbles, has written an explanation in The Guardian in which he says he “did it for all the people who couldn’t.” That’s a nice sentiment, but many people (again, educated guess) are wondering just what exactly he thought was going to happen. Well, Mediaite is proud to bring you a glimpse into an alternate world where Jonnie Marbles had indeed pied Rupert Murdoch.

Stephen Colbert discussed the ongoing News Corp. phone hacking scandal with David Carr from the New York Times and both had a few good laughs at the expense of Rupert Murdoch and Fox News. After having to endure a hearing and a near-miss pie in the face, Colbert mockingly pleaded on behalf of Murdoch, “leave [...]

He’s known for his Top Ten lists, not his breaking news coverage, so you have to forgive David Letterman for getting some of the facts wrong in his coverage of the Rupert Murdoch story, which he described Tuesday night this way: “You know, Rupert Murdoch is on trial in London, England for killing a guy.” Well, no, not quite. But still, the pie-throwing incident during Mr. Murdoch’s testimony before a committee of the British Parliament led to a memorable Top Ten list: “Top Ten Thoughts Going Through Rupert Murdoch’s Mind During the Pie Attack.” And just in case that’s not enough for you, how about NBC’s Matt Lauer interrupting the whole thing–getting caught breaking in to Letterman’s historic Ed Sullivan Theater? Would that be something you might be interested in?

A day after Rupert Murdoch‘s appearance before a committee of the British Parliament looking into the phone hacking scandal that has surrounded Murdoch’s News Corp., MSNBC’s Martin Bashir told Morning Joe‘s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski that Murdoch had a long history of cozy relationships with politicians who “fawned” over him.

Given that Rupert Murdoch was to present himself before Parliament today, and given that said presentation involved a pie attack, today was ripe for the news picking for Jon Stewart, and he hit it out of the park. With a full recap that included the arrest of Mrs. Weasley that guy from Simply Red Rebekah Brooks, Wendi Deng‘s martial arts, and, of course, an extensive sniping of Fox News for treating NPR far harsher than sister medium News of the World.