Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Hires PR Giant Edelman to Help with Phone Hacking Fallout

8:59 AM PDT 7/14/2011 by Georg Szalai

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The firm will advise the conglomerate's U.K. newspaper unit after more than a week of negative headlines as liberal media watchdog group Media Matters says CNN and MSNBC have covered the scandal more than News Corp.'s Fox News.

NEW YORK - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. has brought in public relations giant Edelman to help it amid a recent wave of negative headlines tied to the U.K. phone hacking scandal.

An Edelman official on Thursday confirmed a report about the appointment by the Guardian.

The outside PR company will report to Will Lewis, general manager of News Corp. U.K. newspaper unit News International, and work with the unit's management and standards group that is handling the conglomerate's internal phone hacking probe.

Fallout from the phone hacking scandal has so far included the conglomerate's decision to shutter the News of the World tabloid and abandon its bid to take full control of U.K. pay TV firm BSkyB. News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, son and company deputy COO James Murdoch have been summoned to attend next week's select committee session on phone hacking.

Meanwhile, liberal media watchdog group Media Matters said it analyzed cable news networks' coverage on the phone hacking scandal. Over the first nine days after the scandal reignited, CNN reported on the story in 109 segments, MSNBC had 71 segments, and News Corp.'s Fox News covered the issue in 30 segments.