Update at 9:20 a.m. ET:"News Corp Withdraws BskyB bid" is the latest message on . Given that Sky News is part of Murdoch's News International empire, that would seem to be a solid source.
Also confirming the news: NPR's David Folkenflik. ( 9:43 a.m. ET: News Corp.'s statement is posted here.)
Our original post — "U.K. Lawmakers Unite To Oppose Murdoch Bid For Broadcaster":
There's a lot happening right now in the expanding scandal in the U.K. over allegations that newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International illegally obtained private information — sometimes by paying police — about thousands of people, from members of the royal family and a former prime minister to victims of the 2005 London bombings and the 9/11 attacks.:
-- It's "question time" in Parliament ( watch here), and Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that there will be a "public inquiry" led by Lord Justice Brian Leveson. "The judge can take the inquiry in any direction," Cameron told lawmakers.
-- Cameron's Conservative Party, the opposition Labor Party and Liberals have joined to call on News International to drop its bid for the 60 percent or so of BSkyB, an independent British broadcaster, that it doesn't already own. While, as NPR's David Folkenflik points out, the vote is not binding, The Atlanticdeclares that the BSkyB bid "is falling," and that "Murdoch's dreams are on the verge of collapsing."
-- As The New York Times writes, Cameron is also seeking to "distance himself from Murdoch." The prime minister hired a former News of the World editor (the News International tabloid, which folded Sunday, has been at the center of the scandal) as his first spokesman. That person, Andy Coulson, resigned after about a year during an earlier phase of the so-called hacking scandal. Cameron has said he was not aware of Coulson's involvement in News of the World's actions.
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