Embroiled in the biggest, furthest-reaching media scandal in recent memory, the news empire of Rupert Murdoch appears to be ramping up its efforts to save itself as the phone hacking debacle continues to shake the British political system and police force, as well as News Corp's U.S. holdings. News International, News Corp's U.K. group, has taken out full-page ads in the country's newspapers apologizing for misdeeds that allegedly include the hacking of a 13-year-old murder victim's cell phone. 

Rupert Murdoch (Creative Commons)

News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch will soon face a parliamentary committee, for which he is preparing, according to the Guardian, with grilling sessions with the same legal and public relations team that helped David Letterman salvage his career in the face of a blackmail scandal. The media mogul has lost two individuals who have been essential to his business: News International chief Rebekah Brooks and Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton, both of whom announced their resignations Friday. 

Murdoch's troubles have led to some other media outlets' heightened criticism of the coverage done by the Wall Street Journal, which is owned by News Corp. 

In a New York Times op-ed Joe Nocera accuses the Journal of going easy on its boss, going as far as to call it "Fox-ified" and noting what he views as the increasingly strident conservative opinion pieces published in the Journal's pages:

The political articles grew more and more slanted toward the Republican party line. The Journal sometimes took to using the word “Democrat” as an adjective instead of a noun, a usage favored by the right wing. In her book, “War at The Wall Street Journal,” Sarah Ellison recounts how editors inserted the phrase “assault on business” in an article about corporate taxes under President Obama. The Journal was turned into a propaganda vehicle for its owner’s conservative views. That’s half the definition of Fox-ification.

Nocera here is catching up to what the Columbia Journalism Review's Dean Starkman has been writing for nearly a week. This is a example, he writes, of a story that the Journal should be owning. All this has only stoked the fury of longtime critics of the News Corp's ownership of the Journal. 

Other's, including the Journal's competitiors, have given the paper the benefit of the doubt. The New York Times' Bill Keller told the Daily Beast in an email that he sympathizes with the Journal's awkward position.

More from the Daily Beast:

In covering the story, the Journal has walked a fine line. After running articles on page B1 and B3 on its first two days, the News of the World closure made the front page last Friday. The story was then relegated back inside—although Journal reporters Jessica Vascellaro and Russell Adams broke news Wednesday with a report that News Corp. was contemplating the sale of its remaining British newspapers. As the scandal has continued to explode anew each day, the Journal has, indeed, upped its game.

The Journal on Friday published Murdoch's first full interview about the scandal, which resulted in the folding of the famous British tabloid. 

Other must-reads from the web

• Building on a previous magazine article, the New York Times has published a scathing look at the all-too-friendly relationship between the News of the World and the British police: "At best, former Scotland Yard senior officers acknowledged in interviews, the police have been lazy, incompetent and too cozy with the people they should have regarded as suspects," writes Don Van Natta. "At worst, they said, some officers might be guilty of crimes themselves."
• The Murdoch family, not just the family business, could be falling apart as a result of the crisis. The Guardian's latest reports claim that the Murdoch children may be turning on one another. 
• And now for some moralizing from the unlikeliest of sources. Hustler publisher Larry Flynt offers a bit of media criticism in a Washington Post op-ed: "The way in which we push those boundaries, however, is where we differ. I test limits by publishing controversial material and paying people who are willing to step forward and expose political hypocrisy. Murdoch’s minions, on the other hand, pushed limits by allegedly engaging in unethical or criminal activity: phone hacking, bribery, coercing criminal behavior and betraying the trust of their readership. If News Corp.’s reported wrongdoings are true, what Murdoch’s company has been up to does not just brush against boundaries — it blows right past them."
• The Daily Beast takes a closer look at the potential aftermath of the resignation of the Dow Jones' CEO.