I can't believe we're even having this discussion. The email starts with "Unfortunately, it is as bad as we feared." There is no escaping that. Even if Murdoch bizarrely never read any further than that, what is this "it" which is as bad as "we" "feared"? The copied emails make it crystal clear.
Whether he read the copies at that time or not, is not even the main point, since the question isn't what he read, but what he knew. That sentence screams that the sender is referring to something already well known to the recipient. the mere fact of simply forwarding, without explanation or comment, such nuclear emails, says a thousand words but ask yourselves this:
If Murdoch had no idea of what was as bad as he had feared, what would his natural email response have been? I suggest not "No worries".
For interest, I tried reading the 3 emails, and then typing out Murdoch's response on my Blackberry. I don't know how fast Murdoch can read though i'd imagine his scan reading will be reasonable. I don't know how fast he can type on his Blackberry. But anyway, the whole process took me 2m 40s. So I don't think that the timescale he is talking about means anything.
Indeed, just reading the email and not the forwards, then replying, would take 1 minute not 2 so the timescale is to me a red herring.
And beyond that, let's say he had at the point of replying, for some reason not yet read or digested the full monty. How, given the dire claim "unfortunately, it is as bad as we feared", would he simply not bother reading any further even in a few minutes, or later? Who could resist the urge to know WHAT was as bad as we feared, or WHY it was as bad as we feared?
Final test: pretend you're James Murdoch, and know little or nothing. Then pretend you get that email on your Blackberry. Read it, as if for the first time, and then ask yourself what your reaction/reply would have been, if you really knew nothing about "it".
Hello! Me Again! 
