Senator Jay Rockefeller wants U.S. probe of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation

U.S. Sen­a­tor Jay Rock­e­feller of West Vir­ginia, who chairs the Sen­ate’s Com­mit­tee on Com­merce, Sci­ence, and Trans­porta­tion, called today for the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to inves­ti­gate pos­si­ble wrong­do­ing by Rupert Mur­doch’s News Cor­po­ra­tion (and its many sub­sidiaries) in the Unit­ed States.

Rock­e­feller is among the first elect­ed lead­ers in the Unit­ed States to weigh in on the News of the World phone hack­ing scan­dal, which has revealed that the Aus­tralian media mogul’s U.K. hold­ings have been oper­at­ing for years as a crim­i­nal enterprise.

“The report­ed hack­ing by News Cor­po­ra­tion news­pa­pers against a range of indi­vid­u­als — includ­ing chil­dren — is offen­sive and a seri­ous breach of jour­nal­is­tic ethics,” Rock­e­feller said in a state­ment released by the com­mit­tee.

“This rais­es seri­ous ques­tions about whether the com­pa­ny has bro­ken U.S. law, and I encour­age the appro­pri­ate agen­cies to inves­ti­gate to ensure that Amer­i­cans have not had their pri­va­cy vio­lat­ed. I am con­cerned that the admit­ted phone hack­ing in Lon­don by the News Corp. may have extend­ed to ⁹⁄₁₁ vic­tims or oth­er Amer­i­cans. If they did, the con­se­quences will be severe.”

Mean­while, over in the Unit­ed King­dom, Par­lia­ment appears set to vote on a sim­ple motion urg­ing News Cor­po­ra­tion to drop its bid for British Sky Broad­cast­ing (pop­u­lar­ly known as BSkyB). The Guardian reports:

Rupert Mur­doch will today face the humil­i­a­tion of the Com­mons issu­ing a unan­i­mous all-par­ty call for his scan­dal-rid­den News Cor­po­ra­tion to with­draw its £8bn bid for BSkyB, the great com­mer­cial prize he has been pur­su­ing to cement his dom­i­nance of the British media landscape.

In an extra­or­di­nary volte-face, David Cameron will dis­own the media tycoon by lead­ing his par­ty through the lob­bies to urge him to drop the bid. Mur­doch can defy par­lia­ment and press ahead with the bid, prompt­ing a Com­pe­ti­tion Com­mis­sion inquiry, but he risks find­ing him­self ostracised by a polit­i­cal class that once scram­bled to bend to his wishes.

Labour leader Ed Mil­liband released the text of the motion that he and his par­ty want Par­lia­ment to vote on. It is extreme­ly short and reads as follows:

This House believes that it is in the pub­lic inter­est for Rupert Mur­doch and News Cor­po­ra­tion to with­draw their bid for BSkyB.