Gordon Brown Says Newspaper Hired ‘Known Criminals’

LONDON — Rupert Murdoch’s once-commanding influence in British politics seemed to dwindle to a new low on Tuesday, when all three major parties in Parliament joined in support of a sharp rebuke to his media empire and a parliamentary committee said it would call him, along with two other top executives, to testify publicly next week about the growing scandal enveloping his media empire.

Mr. Murdoch has been struggling to complete a huge, controversial takeover deal that still needs regulatory approval, the $12 billion acquisition of the shares in British Sky Broadcasting that his company does not already own. In an effort to save that deal from the scandal’s fallout, Mr. Murdoch has already shut down the tabloid at the heart of the scandal, The News of the World. But the accusations have spread to other papers in his News International group, and have taken in an ever wider and more outrage-provoking list of victims.