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If a man is judged by the company that he keeps, it may be time forBritain s Prime Minister David Cameron to reassess who he's palling around with. Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie, with whomCameron ate cozy dinners and went horseback-riding, were both charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice on May 15. And onMay 31, Andy Coulson, Cameron s former communications director,was detained by police and charged with perjury. Coulson, who was also once an editor at Rupert Murdoch s NotW , was a controversial choice to become Cameron's mediaadvisor while the Conservative leader was head of the opposition inParliament in 2007. Just weeks after Coulson resigned from thetabloid, its royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, was jailed forphone-hacking. Of course, it s been suggested that Cameron waslikely playing a larger media game with the choice, possiblyattempting to garner favor from the Murdoch press. If so, it was asuccessful move as the Murdoch-owned Sun tabloid pivoted in 2009 and began backing Cameron sConservative party after 12 years of supporting the Labourparty. When the phone-hacking scandal broke, Cameron was quick to defendhis communications director and his choice by sayingCoulson had given him assurances he d known nothing ofphone-hacking at NotW and had even "[become] a friend and is a friend."Cameron later changed his tune and admitted that with, "20-20hindsight and all that has followed, I would not have offered himthe job. ( MORE: Coulson, Connery and Cable: A Day of Media Scandal Hits Britain ) With hindsight, Cameron might have wished he'd kept more of adistance from Murdoch as well. As former Prime Minister Tony Blair explained in his testimony to the public inquiry into media ethics headed by Lord JusticeBrian Leveson on May 28, politicians seeking the highest office inthe land have been more tempted in recent years to harnessthe power of Murdoch's media empire than to challengeit. Cameron himself has said, "I'm responsible forthe decisions I take, the people I employ, the government I run.The buck stops right here, and I take full responsibility for everysingle thing I do." It certainly seems that several ofCameron s critics would like to see him take responsibility forthe judgment calls he has made in relation to Brooks, Coulson and their former News Corporation boss. As for Coulson, his latest legal challenge is the perjury charge,stemming from the 2010 trial of Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan,who was also charged with perjury. An investigation into thephone-hacking scandal in Scotland has been examining whetherwitnesses lied in court during Sheridan s trial. Coulson testifiedat the time that he wasn t aware of phone-hacking at the tabloid."I'm saying I had absolutely no knowledge of it,"he said. Coulson released a statement via his lawyer on Thursday,saying he was ready to "vigorously contest the perjuryallegations" against him "should they ever result intrial." And then there are Cameron s associates who haven t been chargedwith criminal activity, but have nonetheless been fingered forinappropriate behavior, such as Jeremy Hunt, the Tory culturesecretary and witness du jour at Leveson. While Hunt hasn t been implicated in any illegalpractices, he s been repeatedly called out for his allegedly cozyrelationship with News Corp. during itsmulti-billion-dollar takeover bid for the British SkyBroadcasting company. Hunt was meant to be adjudicating the bid,yet a trove of emails and text messages revealed a chummy,unprofessional ease between Hunt s advisor Adam Smith and NewsCorp. lobbyist Frederic Michel. Even more damning was therevelation that Hunt had accepted the position just weeks aftersending a memo to Cameron advocating strongly for governmentapproval of the takeover. ( MORE: Leveson Inquiry: Rebekah Brooks, David Cameron and the Meaning ofLOL ) During Hunt s testimony to Leveson on Thursday, he was grilledabout his alleged bias in favor of the News Corp. takeover. It wasrevealed that just hours before he accepted the position to overseethe bid, Hunt sent a text message to James Murdoch congratulatinghim on clearing a European regulatory hurdle that stood in the wayof the takeover. Hunt also said he had not given Smith, who waspushed out of his job for his inappropriate correspondence withNews Corp., clear guidance on how to converse with the Murdochcamp, yet also said Smith would have been aware of his feelingsabout the bid. Cameron has gone out of his way to publicly defend both Hunt andhis own decision to place Hunt in the quasi-judicial positiondespite having explicit knowledge of the culture secretary senthusiasm for the takeover. Appearing on a British morningtelevision news show, Cameron said the key thing was it wasn twhat [Hunt] had said in the past, it was how he was going to do thejob. He added that Hunt had asked for independent advice atevery stage and took that advice in a thoroughly proper way. ( MORE: Are Rupert Murdoch and David Cameron Locked in a Death Sprial?) Cameron's steadfast support of his beleaguered friends andcolleagues can be interpreted as a virtue his personal loyaltiesappear unswayed by the political costs of his friendships. On theother hand, Hunt's departure would leave Cameron and hisjudgment calls more exposed to direct scrutiny. And although there's something admirable in Cameron'srefusal to bend with the winds of public opinion, that may also bebecause of his ability to screen out views he doesn't like.Unhappy Conservative backbenchers complain that Cameron isunreceptive to their input, instead preferring to rely on thecounsel of his inner circle of advisers and friends. As the government stumbles from one controversy to the next and thephone-hacking scandal laps at Downing Street, the quality of thatcounsel is called into question. When explaining his decision tohire Coulson, Cameron notably said that he wanted to give him asecond chance." He would do well to consider how many chanceshe ll get with voters. ( MORE: Britain's Phone-Hacking Scandal and the Rise of LouiseMensch). 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