The mayor of London invited Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendi Deng to join him poolside for an Olympics swimming final Friday.
Boris Johnson, a conservative politician and vocal critic of Prime Minister David Cameron, requested the media mogul as a personal guest at what he describes as his "schmoozathon," along with other business leaders, the London Evening Standard reported Tuesday.
Johnson, who initially dismissed the phone-hacking scandal that poisoned the perception of News Corp.'s British tabloids as "codswallop," invited Murdoch to join him in part because of the business titan's investments in British sports, namely through his share of broadcaster BSkyB.
Hoever, others have speculated that Johnson, who leads a pack of anti-European Union conservatives against his party leader Cameron, is cozying up to the political kingmaker ahead of a possible bid for prime minister.
The Guardian's editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger was also invited to watch swimmer Rebecca Adlington defend her 800-meter gold medal but was unable to attend, the Standard reported.
On Twitter, many Britons vented anger at the News Corp. CEO's invite.
"Corrupt politician @mayoroflondon takes billionaire tyrant @rupertmurdoch whom *his own police force* is investigating to public event. #MAD," London-based writer Jim Smith tweeted.
"If you lay with dogs you get fleas," Maurice Mcleod, a media executive in London, tweeted. "(but who infects who?): Johnson invites Murdoch to Olympics as his 'personal guest.'"
