News Corp directors 'allowed hacking cover up' Amalgamated Bank, the Central Laborers" Pension Fund and the New Orleans Employees" Retirement System are suing the board of Rupert Murdoch's media empire for "disregarding" its duties to shareholders. The trio of shareholders claim the board's priority was to ensure it was not "at odds" with Mr Murdoch, News Corp's chairman and chief executive. The directors, including chief operating officer Chase Carey, deputy chief operating officer James Murdoch, and Viet Dinh, who is overseeing the internal investigations into phone hacking, "intentionally" accepted "absurd" protestations that it was the work of a single rogue reporter, according to papers lodged in a Delaware court. The shareholders also accused News Corp of setting up the Management and Standards Committee, its internal inquiry into phone hacking and bribery formerly headed by Mr Murdoch's general counsel Joel Klein, as a figleaf for more robust investigations. Mr Klein stepped down from that role earlier this week. The trio of shareholders first took legal action against the News Corp board in March last year for allowing the company to pay £415m for Shine Television, the TV production company founded by Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth, in what they claimed was a case of "rampant nepostism." They have expanded the lawsuit twice since then - once last July and again last week - to include the corporate governance implications of the phone hacking scandal, heaping additional pressure on News Corp each time. News Corp declined to comment on the case. Meanwhile Mr Murdoch has launched a bid to tighten his grip on the media in his native Australia, despite making sweeping job cuts in the territory. News Limited, which owns nearly 150 newspapers including national titles The Australian and the Herald Sun, has made a AS$2bn (£1.3bn) takeover offer for rival business Consolidated Media Holdings. James Packer, Consolidated's largest shareholder with a 50pc stake, has backed News Limited's $3.50-a-share bid, which would significantly bolster Mr Murdoch's stranglehold on the Australian media. News Limited already has a 25pc stake in pay-TV business Foxtel and if the offer is successful this will rise to 50pc as it takes control of Consolidated's holding. The deal would also give it full control of Fox Sports Australia, another pay-TV business, as Consolidated and News Limited currently each own half.