James Murdoch has long emerged as the heir-apparent to his father’s global empire having bested his older siblings. Photograph: Miguel Villagran/Getty Images
It's like the last scene from Reservoir Dogs when they all shoot each other.
But what did the Murdochs expect? After dumping on so many senior News International executives and laying off hundreds of journalists when they impetuously shut down the News of the World in a bid to contain the scandal, the only surprise was that the shots weren't fired sooner.
The question now is who are going to be the last men standing at the newspaper empire Rupert Murdoch built up over the last four decades?
And will his son and heir-apparent, James, be among them?
The bombshell two-paragraph statement by the News of the World's former editor and legal affairs manager is threatening to finish off James Murdoch's career just as he might have thought he had emerged from the worst.
On Tuesday, he would have gone to bed pleased with his polished performance at the culture select committee. His defence peppered with impressive Harvard MBA-speak ("I had no direct knowledge" "quantum of damages" etc) had repelled the worst of MPs' gunfire. He kept his reputed short temper in check for the afternoon and News Corp shares even rose on the stock market midway through the interrogation.
As a result of the statement, Murdoch is now being accused of the very "wilful blindness" that he claimed not to have heard of on Tuesday. Either way, there are no upsides.
Murdoch will be unable to avoid another round of bruising allegations and recriminations guaranteed to keep him in the headlines.
Even as the latest grenade landed in his 10th floor executive suite, News International were throwing another man overboard – this time another journalist, Matt Nixson, of the Sun. But the sacrificial strategy has long since stopped working.
The timing of Murdoch's crisis couldn't have been worse. He had long emerged as the heir-apparent to his father's global empire having bested his older siblings Elisabeth and Lachlan. He was about to ascend to a new role in New York leaving the unpleasant business at the newspapers' Wapping HQ far behind.
But, in less than two weeks, the whole thing has gone awry.
He closed a newspaper that earned the family firm some £40m a year in profit; put 200 journalists out of a job; saw the end his father's dream of future-proofing his business by taking over BSkyB; and saw their court of political influence disappear in smoke.
The seeds of destruction had already been sown when he arrived at the newspaper business in 2007 – but how he handled them was the test of his business mettle.
James, 38, youngest of three children in Murdoch's second marriage, arrived in the UK to cries of nepotism in 2003 when he was parachuted in as chief executive of BSkyB. But his instinctive grasp of technology and experience he had on the nursery slopes at his father's Asian broadcasting operation, Star TV, saw him rise above the criticism and earn widespread industry respect.
At BSkyB, he moved the company into the broadband age taking risks and investing in High Definition and 3D TV as well as launching an audacious £940m bid for a stake in ITV to block an approach from a rival firm. Although it was foiled, analysts praised the move as "worthy of his father".
However, he was a fish out of water when he was "transferred" into News International four years ago to take over from his ageing father who was rescinding control of his British newspaper empire to concentrate on News Corp in America.
It was supposed to be the last round in his corporate finishing school before he ascended to the ultimate top job in New York.
The last two weeks have tested his management skills to breaking point and it appears the company's strategy of containment has become a textbook example of how not to handle a crisis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/22/james-murdoch-top-looking-down?CMP=twt_gu
