Basically, I agree with Mr./Ms. Rose but I can't help thinking Murdoch's wife sprang as if expecting the pie attack and that it was a planned, paid-for distraction meant to draw sympathy for the frail old man who holds all our futures in his grubby, corrupt stranglehold!

Personally, I think the pie incident was bad because:

1) It gave sympathy to Murdoch and
2) It interrupted the flow of the questioning.

If you look up the proceedings:

http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/culture-media-sport/Uncorrected_transcript_19_July_phone_hacking.pdf

and found the relevant section. It's page 46 (47 if you're using the PDF Bar to navigate), Q 412. Before the pie, Louise Mensch MP was asking him why, if it was OK for Les Hinton to resign simply because it happened on his watch, why wasn't that the case for Murdoch. Afterwards, the committee was a lot easier on the Murdochs by way of an apology.

Personally, I think the pie incident was bad because:

1) It gave sympathy to Murdoch and
2) It interrupted the flow of the questioning.

If you look up the proceedings:

http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/culture-media-sport/Uncorrected_transcript_19_July_phone_hacking.pdf

and found the relevant section. It's page 46 (47 if you're using the PDF Bar to navigate), Q 412. Before the pie, Louise Mensch MP was asking him why, if it was OK for Les Hinton to resign simply because it happened on his watch, why wasn't that the case for Murdoch. Afterwards, the committee was a lot easier on the Murdochs by way of an apology.

I like pie.

I was so disgusted by the cavalier handling of this story. In no circumstance is it acceptable to assault someone, period, end of story. Millions are disgruntled with Obama, Boehner, and Reid, but no one should advocate for the public pie-ing of any of the above. Seriously, OTM, if you can't cover a story fairly, try not covering it at all. We'll respect you more.