Seated before a panel of Parliamentary inquisitors looking for answers on how one of the United Kingdom's most popular tabloid newspapers conceived, created, and condoned an alleged decade-long campaign of hacking into people's cell phones to 'uncover news, billionaire News Corp (NWS) CEO Rupert Murdoch said it was "the most humbling day of his career."

Minutes later, thanks to a security breach wider than the English Channel, the public's outrage over its privacy being invaded fomented itself in the form of a foamy cream pie, carried in the hands of a protester and presumably intended for the face of the humbled but high-value target.

Perhaps metaphorically for the empire he built via brazen acquisitions, the 81-year-old media mogul didn't even flinch - though his young wife Wendi did - her sweeping overhand slap looking all the more out of place coming from a small pink jacket.

Pure tabloid magic. Let the headline contest begin.

Setting aside the seriousness of the inquiry for a moment, that brief Bart Simpson-esque prank has sadly had the inverse effect that it was intended to. Rather then denigrate, it has seemingly diluted and distracted us. A week, a month, a year from now I am certain only one sliver of Murdoch's historic testimony will be remembered.

Regardless of the outcome of the current UK probe, and whether or not similar inquiries evolve in the U.S., a hefty toll has already been inflicted on the man and the company he loves and built. My colleague Dan Gross cites analysis leading him to believe there's a Murdoch discount and a Murdoch premium. News Corp is now worth only half what it would be if its various parts were tallied separately, and that the stock is trading essentially where it was 13 years ago.

From Goldman Sach's (GS) surprise earnings miss to Bank of America (BAC) posting a $9.1 billion quarterly loss, it has been a negative news cycle surrounding the Financial sector. But for Bob Pavlik, Chief Market Strategist at Banyan Partners, the case for owning the big money center banks follows the simple logic that it's not a question of if, but when, they will recover. "I am not smart enough to say when the beginning of the end is going to start, but I know it's going to come," he says.

And when it does, he says, watch out.

Right now, to most investors it feels like little more than headline risk, settlements, and set-asides from the beleaguered banks and it is reflected in the market with the Banks and Diversified Financial industry groups tied for last place so far this year with double-digit declines. "The news has been already priced into these things. The catalyst is going to be when we really start to see some improvement in the mortgage-related area, the housing stuff. Once we start to see the beginning of the end of this, then the stocks are going to start rising," says Pavlik.

According to Pavlik, maybe another 6 months, maybe longer, and he even concedes that "the shorts" could make more money for a while. But what makes him feel secure is that "the Citigroups, the JPMorgans, the Bank of Americas, these are the leaders in their industry despite what is going on with the stock prices. The government has essentially told you these companies are not going to go out of business."