James Murdoch is set to be appointed to a new role overseeing News Corporation’s lucrative Fox Networks Group in the US, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal this morning.

That’s an internal appointment, of course. Would you hire this man, after what the British communications regulator said about him overnight?

Ofcom didn’t hold back in its report on whether BSkyB — part-owned by News Corp, and formerly co-chaired by Murdoch — was a “fit and proper” holder of a UK broadcast licence. Paul Barry compiles the rap sheet for Crikey today.

Regarding the £720,000 settlement with ex-footballer Gordon Taylor over phone hacking: “We consider that James Murdoch’s exercise of responsibility was less than we would expect to see exhibited by a competent chief executive officer.”

On his response to the Taylor settlement being published in The Guardian in 2009: “We consider that Murdoch’s failure to apprise himself of this information, given the information he accepts he knew, fell short of the exercise of responsibility to be expected of the chief executive officer and the chairman.”

On his response to the 2010 culture select committee phone-hacking report: “We consider this lack of action by the chairman of News International in response to a widely publicised highly critical Select Committee report to be both difficult to comprehend and ill-judged.”

On 2010 revelations in The New York Times that phone-hacking was rife at the News of the World: “We find it difficult to comprehend James Murdoch’s lack of action, given his responsibility as chairman.”

Ofcom said there was no evidence Murdoch was “complicit in a cover-up”, but that: “We found Murdoch’s conduct including his failure to initiate action on his own account on a number of occasions to be both difficult to comprehend and ill-judged.”

After fleeing Britain, Murdoch remains News Corp’s deputy chief operating officer. His new job will bring more responsibility and no doubt more remuneration.

Nice work if you can get it.