First he said he wouldn't show up. Then he said he would. He looked doddery, a pie was thrown, his hot young wife/attendant threw herself on his attacker. The Very Serious panel chair apologized to him. His company's share price rises steeply. It's a story for made for mindless tabloid coverage. What if it literally was?
Nobody knows tabloid coverage like Rupert Murdoch. Nobody's as skillful at bending a story so that it has the effect he wants. Does anybody believe he showed up at the House of Commons without a plan? What was that plan, if not the pie?
This isn't a conspiracy theory, it's not an extraordinary claim. Here's a guy whose business it is to look at the news and turn it into stories that push his agenda. One guy, arguably the world's most successful visible propagandist and dirty trickster, whose empire is on the line, figuring out how to turn that awful "come to judgment" story into one that makes him look better. It's a simple matter to hire a pieman, and arrange for a big stock buy immediately afterwards. (Really? The stocks went up immediately? Because he got pied?)
The story that ran was: here's a little pitiful, decent, doddery, humble old man, attacked by some anarchistic clown, but rescued by his staunch allies. And the stocks are shooting back up. That was the tabloid story, and it seems to have done the trick, the real story is off the front page.