. >> reporter: max clifford himself an expert on crisis management alleged his phone was hacked.d the "news of the world," a settlement was reached last year. in the past he has given a bit of advice to the former executive rebekah brooks, though she denied wrongdoing, clifford says if she had any knowledge of who was hacked she should reveal it before someone else does. >> bring it out yourself, it will be damaging but nothing like as damaging if someone else brings it out, but i think that the feeling was i can only assume the feeling that news international was this is not going anywhere. it's going away, dead and buried. >> reporter: one big pr snafu was saying no when asked to appear before parliament. >> one was tell her to go to hell and the other camp said that is not going to look good. >> reporter: bottom line according to max clifford -- >> if it's the go to go out, bring it out, control it yourself and they missed a golden opportunity and they're paying for it now. >> reporter: with the murdoch empire under ever more scrutiny, what could repair or indeed further damag

. >> james, would you acknowledge then in your view that you overpaid max clifford and gordon taylor? >> well, i can't speak to the arrangements with mr. clifford, as i don't have direct knowledge in terms of i wasn't involved in those pieces, in that piece. with respect to the taylor settlement, i gave a judgment given the advice of counsel, given the advice of the executives involved and going back and looking at what we knew in 2008 and looking at that advice, remembering that advice, and looking at the context of the time if we step back those few years, three years now, you know, it was a decision that given that context was a decision that i would still stand by, i think. >> it just seems a bit -- >> certainly i think the -- sorry, mr. davies. >> apparently there was a contract with mr. clifford which was cancelled by mr. colson. >> i don't know about that at all. i don't know if you have knowledge about it. >> i'm sorry, you were going on? >> it just seems strange to me -- >> i don't know what was in the contract. i know there was a particular arrangement with max clifford. >>

. >> when were you informed about the payments made to gordon taylor and max clifford? >> nope. >> no? when were -- was that a yes or no -- it was not a yes or no. no. the answer is no. doesn't matter what the question is. they don't want to do it. so the only way out of this, well, there may be two ways out of this. one, if the president can circumvent congress, the president could theoretically break the law that says it's congress that has to raise the debt ceiling by instead raising it himself by using powers out of the constitution which says our debt has to be honored. that's one of the things in politics that may be technically feasible, not that he wouldn't do it to save the country. presidents have done things more extreme, but the idea he would be made to do it or consider it, it is almost impossible to imagine. putting that aside, is there anything short of something that dramatic that could be done here? yes. at least used to be something. mitch mcconnell, the top republican in the senate proposed last week -- remember this? proposed last week -- he proposed

. >> when were you informed about the payments made to gordon taylor and max clifford? >> nope. >> you were not informed? >> nope. >> did you or anyone else at your organization investigate this at the time? >> no. >> is that right? >> i forget the days. i never heard -- i didn't hear that. that is the first i've heard of that. i just don't remember. there's no excuse for breaking the law at any time, sorry. >> a man named vincent "the chin" used to wander around greenwich village. which, in fact, he was. his scheme did not work. vinny the chin was convicted on racketeering and conspiracy charges in the 1990s, he ultimately died in prison. is rupert murdoch pulling a vinny the chin here? is he going to drop the whole fake limp or is rupert murdoch really that out of his depth, unaware of most things going on around him, unaware even of how much he's using his hands when he talks? meanwhile, rupert murdoch's son, james, only 38 years old, so he can not even try a i can't understand anything defense. instead, just tried a donald rumsfeld impersonation. >> i'm not saying t

guru max clifford himself and hacking victim says that killing off the news of the world will not killhe scandal. >> is the allegations are true, then it is very damaging for news of the world. and of course news of the world is like the flag ship of news international so the cancer that is developing, or has been developing since we started in news of the world has now cost started to spread and the damage that it is doing so, kill it off and hope that you do not spread that kantor to news international and news corp. worldwide. >> the sides out of the headquarters of news international show the breadth of his newspaper empire in britain. the news of the world side will be coming down soon no doubt and as for the employees losing their job like the political editor david, there are so many more questions than answers. >> i could only assume that he feels like the brand has been so badly damaged the best thing to do is to scorch the policy get rid of a but it is one hell a decision. >> would you be surprised if he were to start another sunday paper? >> no. but the reason news of the wo

> it would have been other people to tell me that. >> james would you acknowledge you overpaid max cliffordylor? >> i can't speak to the arrangements with mr. clifford. i was not -- i don't have direct knowledge in terms of i wasn't involved in those pieces and that piece. with respect to the taylor piece, i made a judgment given the advice of counsel, given the advice of the executives involved that -- and going back and looking at what we knew in 2008 and looking at that advice, remembering that advice, and looking at the context of the time if we step back those few years now. you know, it was a decision that given that context was a decision that i would still stand by, i think. >> it just seems a bit -- >> certainly irng the -- >> all right, mr. davis. >> apparently there was a contract with mr. clifford, which was canceled by mr. coulson. >> i don't know about that. i don't have knowledge of that. mr. davis, you were going on. >> it just seems strange to me that -- >> i don't know what was in the context. >> we might ask you to come back to it. we might ask you to come back with detai

when were you informed about the payments made to gordon taylor and max clifford?no. >> you were not informed? >> no. >> at no point you knew that taylor and clifford made payments? >> i never heard. >> you never informed the chief executives that you authorized payment of half a million pounds -- i'd like you to tell me whether you had informed your father that you had authorized payment to gordon taylor as a result of him being a victim of a crime? >> the settlement with mr. taylor, and i'm happy to address the matter of mr. taylor in some detail if you would like. >> first just let me know -- >> my father became aware after the settlement was made in 2009, i believe, after the confidential settlement had become public as the newspaper reported on the out of court settlement afterwards. please understand that the settlement of an -- an out of court settlement of a civil claim with that nature and of that quantum is something that normally in a company our size the responsible executives in the territory, in the country would be authorized to make and that's the w

siena miller has received 100,000 pounds, $160,000 max clifford received over $1 million. it looks like people like hugh grant will receive payments. it so keeps -- what happens is, the newspaper keeps saying, enough, we've got to the bottom of it, we now know what happened, and then, whoosh! like a fountain, it erupts all over again with more allegations. but this time, we're in a different league. this is like something -- i mean, when the prime minister says he's disgusted, it's deplorable, then you know that we're in deep trouble indeed. >> all right. we'll continue following this. richard quest. always good to talk to you, thanks. >>> turning now to the white house, where president obama had a first this afternoon. a tweet-up. if you're like me, a tweet-up, what is that? apparently that's what they call it in twitter land. the president is hosting a twitter town hall. everyone can meet up there, twitter a question. they keep it to the 140-character max, but no limit on the size of the presidential response, and the president answered with a microphone. let's bring in

when were you informed of the payment made to tayler and max clifford? >> no. >> you were not involved? at no point you knew that they were made payments? okay. from the chiefs executive of news corporation a payment of half a million -- i want you to tell me whether you inform your father that you had payments to the goldman taylor as a result of him being a victim of the crime. estimates of the settlement with mr. taylor, and i'm happy to address the matter of mr. taylor in some detail of you would like, my father became aware after the settlement was made in 2009i believe after the confidential settlement had become public as the newspaper report on the subtle and afterwards, but please understand the settlement an out-of-court settlement of that nature and of that quantum is something that normally accompany our size and executives in the territory of the country would be authorized to make, and that's the way the company has functioned and it is below the approval threshold if you will that would have to go to my father's chief executive of a global

when were you informed of the payment made to tayler and max clifford? >> no. >> you were not involved? at no point you knew that they were made payments? okay. from the chiefs executive of news corporation a payment of half a million -- i want you to tell me whether you inform your father that you had payments to the goldman taylor as a result of him being a victim of the crime. estimates of the settlement with mr. taylor, and i'm happy to address the matter of mr. taylor in some detail of you would like, my father became aware after the settlement was made in 2009i believe after the confidential settlement had become public as the newspaper report on the subtle and afterwards, but please understand the settlement an out-of-court settlement of that nature and of that quantum is something that normally accompany our size and executives in the territory of the country would be authorized to make, and that's the way the company has functioned and it is below the approval threshold if you will that would have to go to my father's chief executive of a global

that news international had with gordon taylor at the professional association and the publicist max cliffordwhereby they were paid three-quarters of a million, million pounds in compensation and legal costs over their phone hacking. why were there such huge sums paid and in particular when james murdoch admitted the other day that he agreed agree to those payouts, what was it? he said at the time he had done so without the full facts but what faxes you know now about those cases. that is clearly one of the many fascinating areas they will want to pro. >> great questions and we look over to the answers tomorrow. let's have a quick look at tomorrow morning's front pages. the guardian leads with the "news of the world," whistleblower found dead. the reporter -- and on the right-hand side to gates police examiner laptop found dumped near brooks' flat. the guardian has on its front page, the telegraph has found the phone hacking whistleblower with a picture of sean hoare and david cameron who is we said is on his way back from his african trip. we guess that cameron's birthday party -- [inaudible