NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Shares of News Corp., Rupert Murdoch's media company, tumbled Wednesday amid allegations that journalists from one of its British newspapers were involved in hacking the voice mails of a murdered teen girl and the father of a bombing victim.
News Corp (NWS). dropped 4% during afternoon trading, even as the overall stock market gained ground.
News of the World, a British tabloid known for its photos of bikini-clad starlets and royals, is at the center of the scandal. Journalists from the paper are being investigated for allegedly hacking into the phones of celebrities and politicians, as well as a missing teenage girl who was eventually found murdered, and the father of a victim killed in the London bombings on July 7, 2005.
The scandal has cost the publication advertising revenue. Carmakers Ford (F, Fortune 500) and Renault have said they won't be advertising in the tabloid, and consumer products maker Procter & Gamble (PG, Fortune 500) said it's reviewing its options.
Rupert Murdoch, media mogul on top of the $60 billion News Corp. empire, weighed in on the scandal, condemning the alleged activity and vowing to cooperate with police investigations.
"Recent allegations of phone hacking and making payments to police with respect to the 'News of the World' are deplorable and unacceptable," he said in a statement issued Wednesday. "We are committed to addressing these issues fully and have taken a number of important steps to prevent them from happening again."
The furor over the alleged hacking was loud enough to catch the attention of British Prime Minister David Cameron.
"If [the allegations] are true, this is a really dreadful act," he said, during a state visit to Afghanistan.
-- CNN's Richard Allen Greene contributed to this report. 
