How do you solve a PR-oblem like the Murdochs?

Over the past few weeks the media has, of course, been dominated by the News Corp. hacking story. While this is obviously about much more than PR, it’s interesting how much of it has hinged on public relations.

Despite the money no doubt being poured into PR by News Corp. there have been a lot of ‘what we you thinking?!’ moments. From Rupert’s ‘We made some minor mistakes’ quote to the Murdoch clan’s public in-fighting, with eldest daughter Elizabeth (apparently) claiming her brother has ‘f***** the company’. Not the best responses – and not the best PR.

For me, there are two key questions: how could a media powerhouse like the Murdochs get it so horribly wrong? And, much more importantly, can they turn it around? The start of a possible recovery, or at least as much as is possible, could be seen with the Murdoch / Brooks performances throughout the two hearings that took place before the Commons culture, media and sport committee.

Setting aside the shockingly poor public image they’ve portrayed so far, their appearance in front of the committee seemed to show they’re aware of their poor public relations performance so far and have spent time and money trying to fix it. Both Rupert, and later Rebekah, generally managed to come across as apologetic but also not wholly to blame – a difficult balance to pull off but one they did manage. James Murdoch does appear to have ‘forgotten’ a lot and been ‘mistaken’ quite a few things. But then, this is a man who has so far dodged a lot of the blame by playing dumb – so that’s no surprise really.

But for Rupert and Rebekah at least, the result of this much more impressive public appearance has been fewer headlines and less hysteria. They’re still on the front pages but the headlines are now mostly based around the actual issue – as opposed to simply talking about ill-advised comments from those involved. Hopefully, this continues. If only because the more the main players can steer clear of PR-nightmare moments that send the dailies into overdrive, the more we can get on with understanding exactly who hacked what; who paid who to do it and what should be done to ensure it doesn’t happen again.