As The New York Times noted earlier today, “The Fox News Channel suspended coverage of the violence taking place in Cairo Wednesday to present the news conference introducing The Daily, a new business venture controlled by Fox's corporate owner, News Corporation.”

The Times reported:

At one point in the Fox coverage, the business anchor Neil Cavuto, appeared to respond, he said to comments from viewers who were suggesting that Fox was only covering this because this was a business owned by their own boss.

“That might have something to do with it,” Mr. Cavuto said. He then offered arguments for why this news spoke to “cultural events beyond a given company,” suggesting that it was a “crucial stage” in the future of news because so many more people are getting their news and information online.

However, when it came time for the question and answer portion of the news conference, Fox News -- which had already teased its own exclusive interview with News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch -- resumed regular programming.

The Daily's website continued to stream the event, which included several reporters' questions on the new tablet-specific publication as well as one reporter's question on a more uncomfortable topic: the phone-hacking controversy currently plaguing News Corp.-owned tabloid News of the World in the U.K.

Murdoch, who traveled to the U.K. last week to personally deal with the hacking controversy, said he had “nothing to say today” about the scandal.

A separate New York Times article published today on a lawsuit against News of the World and “its parent company, News Group Newspapers, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News International” reported:

Court papers in the case, as described by people familiar with the lawsuit, shed a stark and unflattering light on the newspaper's reliance on phone hacking as a standard reporting method. This conduct is at the heart of a growing array of civil lawsuits and criminal inquiries against the paper and News Group.

Reuters has reported that the hacking scandal “may undermine” News Corp.'s current bid to take full control of British satellite TV company BSkyB -- a multi-billion dollar deal “expected to sharply reduce the company's exposure to the weak newspaper business.”

Neil Cavuto -- who conducted Fox News' interview with Murdoch today -- did not ask the News Corp. CEO about the hacking scandal.

News Corp. is scheduled to release its quarterly earnings this afternoon. The AP reported that “the company is expected to post slightly increased profits for the quarter through December but roughly flat revenue.”

UPDATE: Here is video of the hacking question, asked by the BBC: