News Corp. investors oppose Murdoch sons

Protesters demonstrated at the News Corp. meeting on the Fox lot.British MP Tom Watson was among those at a demonstration held outside News Corp.s annual shareholder meeting on Friday. MurdochIt's a bad time to be a Murdoch on News Corp.'s board, according to vote tallies released by the company Monday afternoon.Shareholders re-elected all 15 of the company's directors at Friday's annual stockholders meeting, but Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch earned 224,151,616 nays out of 665,058,572 total votes and 232,013,203 nays out of 665,041,713 total votes, respectively - the highest number of negative votes received by anyone on the board. Both are the sons of chairman-CEO Rupert Murdoch, who received 91,798,107 nays out of a total of 653,483,832 votes - among the low-end of negative tallies.Shareholders also overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to elect an independent chairman, a move which would have ultimately relieved the eldest Murdoch of that role. The proposal earned just 1,517,604 in favor, 680,583,000 against.With control of 40% of voting shares, the Murdoch family was in little danger of getting ousted from the board. A phone hacking scandal wracked the company in July, forcing it to shutter profitable newspaper "News of the World" and launching investigations into parent company News International. Investors who attended last week's meeting also voiced concerns over the board's oversight, which many saw as contributing to the scandal. Contact Rachel Abrams at Rachel.Abrams@variety.com