more than 50 years may guess, les hinton, was murder‘s right—hand man.s a top executive with news corp during some of its most tumultuous times. well, he has just lifted the lid on of its most tumultuous times. well, he hasjust lifted the lid on his time at the corporation in a new memoir. how much personal responsibility does he bearfor some of the excesses of news international like the phone hacking scandal in the uk, and did he have a career he can be proud of? les hinton. welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much. it is good to be here. what was it like working alongside rupert murdoch for more than 50 years? it was hard work. it was staring, it was exciting, it was inferior eating, and occasionally it was agony. but they were great years —— infuriating. i began as a 15—year—old and a running a large company in new york. amy cure cries from fairly humble beginnings. you say in your memoirs, maybe you score was a personality cult. maybe, surely it was orica wasn't. the pens on how you define a personality cult. but he certainly... it did not occui’ cu

now on bbc news, zeinab badawi talks to the former news corp executive les hinton on hardtalk.

now on bbc news, zeinab badawi talks to the former news corp executive les hinton on hardtalk.

i'm joined now by les hinton, former executive chairman at news international, who'sjust published hisupert murdoch. what is your concern? it sounds that they could be getting pretty close to the important line that separates commerce from independent in editorial matter, once that is crossed, readers can no longer be sure if they are reading sponsored material or traditional independent news, and then they are on the road to ruin. the broader picture, because of what has happened with newspapers and their economies, the balance of power between advertisers and newspapers has been upset. these days, you will see a great part of the newspaper, hitherto sacrosanct for editorial, for instance, front pages, two and three, they will now carry advertising, they never did before... the interesting question, before we get onto the economics, which is clearly where this ends, where do you draw the line? if there is an article saying, ten things you never knew you could do with google, is that favourable comment? is that out of interest to the consumer? that is the question, the issue is, if the