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News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch leaves his house in London on Friday.
Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper arm is to launch a Sunday tabloid newspaper "very soon", it said on Friday, only seven months after it was forced to close its News of the World Sunday tabloid to defuse public outrage at the phone hacking scandal.
Murdoch was spending the day at his east London base to try and reassure staff at his mass selling tabloid The Sun after a string of arrests rocked staff in recent weeks.
He sent an email to staff confirming that he was still committed to the paper and would launch a Sunday edition of The Sun to replace the News of the World, which ceased publication in July when it emerged that its journalists routinely eavesdropped on the private voice-mail messages of celebrities, sports figures, politicians and crime victims including a murdered 13-year-old girl.
Murdoch said he plans to remain in London for several weeks to handle the crisis caused by phone hacking and police investigations into alleged email hacking and purported bribery of public officials.
The contents of the internal email were quickly circulated and published on media news websites.
'Great journalism'
Murdoch's visit follows last week's arrest of five senior staff at The Sun as part of an inquiry into the alleged payment of bribes to police and defense officials for information. A total of 10 current and former staff at The Sun — Britain's biggest selling newspaper — have been questioned over the allegations. None has so far been charged.
"We cannot protect people who have paid public officials," Murdoch said in his email, which was forwarded to The Associated Press. "I am confident we can live by these commitments and still produce great journalism."
Murdoch confirmed that staff currently suspended amid the police inquiries would be allowed to return to their posts, and pledged to help The Sun, which he has owned since 1969, recover from the crisis. He said the tabloid is "part of me and is one of our proudest achievements."
"We will build on The Sun's proud heritage by launching The Sun on Sunday very soon," Murdoch's email read. "Our duty is to expand one of the world's most widely read newspapers and reach even more people than ever before."
The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
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Sigh.....just what the world needs, another murdoch tabloid.
As if there wasn't already enough BS being printed.
Murdoch and his Fascist minions should all be in prison.
Murdoch is a throwback to the days of the Third Reich and Joseph Goebbels.
.
I hope the Brits have learned their lesson, this man is trash and we don't want him or his kind here in the US. He does nothing but make money off other peoples misery. People like him should be torn limb from limb and hung on the 4 corners of Britain.
I wonder who's on page 3 today.
Same owner, same journalists, same environment - a pile of crap given a new name is still the same pile of crap.
A new UK tabloid still can't compete with Murdoch's best tabloid news agency ever.....FOX News.
Oh, you mean the FOX News that absolutely crushes all of its competition in the ratings, clearly demonstrating that a majority prefers its coverage over the left wing dross doled out by Obama's adoring prostitutes in the so-called "mainstream" media?
Yes, that FOX News...fantasy over fact.
Just because something is believed by more people doesn't make it true. If everyone started saying the sky is green that doesn't mean it isn't actually still blue.
Pro wrestling gets high ratings also and it is just as fake as fox.
If he wasn't so old and nasty, maybe he could spend some time with his smoking hot wife, who is old enough to be his granddaughter. Freakin Pedophile!
You lose the radical news rag and you lose control of the people! He has to keep the process going or he will lose what he and his backers have spent so much time and money to aquire!
It is always fun to read liberals attack Murdoch or Koch. It is scary how much left-wingers obsess about them. Liberals are a very simple-minded group.
i dont think anyone defending fox news can accuse anybody of having a simple mind.
zaruski, you have never even seen fox news. You just go by snippets other liberals take out of context. At least fox news inserts opposing views, while msnbc (which I hate to mention in the same sentence as fox because nbc is not a news network) only puts on people who agree with each other. When left-wingers talk, they must just say 'bah' to each other because they are nothing but sheep led around by other unintelligent sheep.
Simple? I've been working as a civil engineer right out of college (and for 3 years before I graduated in fact). What's your background Jeff?
By the way, I've watched Fox News. Hypocrisy and stupidity exists in all news networks, I'd never argue that (with CNN leaning more towards stupidity), but Fox takes it to another level. You'd have to be in denial to to think they don't mix in religion and opinion on news that should be based on FACTS. Key example, Glenn Beck. Is he good at roping people in and making money? Yes. Is he out of his mind? Yes, even Fox thinks so - the fact that his show was on air for that long is a crime against journalism. Unless you really think the PRESIDENT of the USA is racist against caucasians.
Fox "News" is about 90% opinion and 10% facts, my issue with it is that their viewers aren't aware of this and take everything as a fact. It's a detriment to rational thinking people like myself who have to work twice as hard to offset the stupidity.
Jeff you have GOT to be kidding...... "At least fox inserts opposing views".... I almost spit up my iced tea reading that.
The last time Fox news had an opposing view was when Hannity had Combs and then it was moderate conservative versus right wing nut.
And I'm not blind MSNBC is definately left biased but Fox puts all other networks to shame.
RUPERT MURDOCH, POSTER BOY
FOR TOO BIG TO FAIL
So Murdoch’s duty, as he sees it, is to
increase circulation of the Sun in spite of the fact a total of 10 current and former
staff have faced questioning for eves dropping, and bribing police and defense
officials.
Sounds like he feels like he has dodged this bullet and plans to return to business as usual.
Will it be called "The Daily Hack"?
Murdoch is one of thes most un-principled old bastards the world has ever known. May his "fair and balanced" legacy rot in hell.
It is not exactly a "new" tabloid, just seven days of the Sun, rather than six. He needs to keep his editorial staff busy, since they now universally hate him. So, one more day of "see the tits on Daisy, 17, from North London on Page-3", "Beyonce loses her knickers", Whitney "died in coke fueled satanic act", "England soccer captain bonks the wife of his team-mate _____— [fill in the blank]", and the usual stream of cutting edge news the Sun squirts out. Since about half the UK is lineing up to sue him over phone hacking he needs the extra cash. Heaven forbid he couldn't continue to support Fox News, his one-man Australian cynical [and successful] attempt to skew the political opinion of an entire nation, just because he felt disrespected when he couldn't initially get citizenship. We should remenber what happened in England, where the politicians systematically licked his ass, knowing that if they didn't his media empire would destroy them utterly. I just hope he croaks before he manages to pull the same tricvk over here. [Don't worry about Wendi, she just wants his money].
This man is tempting fate...his own.
To bad he wasn't a cop he could have said he was on a call with no lights and siren on.
what, the records indicate there was no call for me.
Well i was'nt on my own call I was on back up call to another officer.
what records indicate the other officer did not request back up.
Well I heard his call and I thought I should go back him up.
so you really were'nt requested you were not called for backup but you thought you should and do it without lights and siren.
Yes. O.K. then you can go back to work, good police work.
Fox News is about as fair & balanced, as Pravda.