LONDON — With a political firestorm cascading over the British government’s ties to his media empire, Rupert Murdoch faced rare public scrutiny about his relationships with elected officials on Wednesday, and sought to deflect suggestions that he tried to use his links to powerful public figures to further corporate commercial interests.. . .

• Wednesday 25 April 2012

• Rupert Murdoch at the Leveson inquiry – live

  Rupert Murdoch at the Leveson inquiry: ‘Do I have an aura or charisma? I don?t think so.’ Photograph: Reuters

  Join us as News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch gives evidence to the inquiry set up in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal. By Josh Halliday andJohn Plunkett

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  Josh Halliday and John Plunkett

  10.19 EDT

• Tuesday 24 April 2012

• James Murdoch at the Leveson inquiry – Tuesday 24 April

  James Murdoch gives evidence at the Leveson inquiry today

  Full coverage of James Murdoch’s evidence to the Leveson inquiry. ByJosh Halliday and John Plunkett

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  Josh Halliday, John Plunkett and Ben Quinn

  18.59 EDT

•  And here is the latest from the Wall Street Journal, which is of course, owned by Murdoch, which makes this a miserable assignment for the three Journal staffers who share the byline today:

  News Corp. Chief Faces Inquiry

  • By CASSELL BRYAN-LOW, JEANNE WHALEN and DAVID ENRICH

  LONDON—With a fresh political scandal swirling around his global media conglomerate here, News Corp. NWSA +0.62% Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch faced questioning Wednesday before a public press-ethics inquiry about whether he used the company to call in political favors and push his commercial interests.

  The media mogul repeatedly said he hadn’t asked prime ministers, and would-be prime ministers, for favors, and said that his commercial interests didn’t influence where his newspapers stood on issues or political parties.

  

  Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman and chief executive, appeared before the Leveson Inquiry, a judge-led examination into British media practices. WSJ’s Bruce Orwall discusses this and the fallout from James Murdoch’s testimony yesterday.

  At the same time, he conceded “abuses” have occurred at his own company—which has been battered by a long-running scandal over illicit reporting tactics—though he added: “I would say there are many other abuses, but we can go into that in time.” Mr. Murdoch also distanced himself from some of the activities: “”We have a very large company and I do run that company with a great deal of decentralization.”