Facebook has endured bad publicity, especially over privacy issues and claims of Zuckerberg stealing ideas on his way to the top, but Facebook’s latest PR disaster may take the cake. According to The Daily Beast, somebody in Silicon Valley hired Burson-Marsteller, a top public relations firm, to pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers and bloggers, urging them to investigate claims of Google violating people’s privacy. After USA Today broke ^[1] a story accusing Burson-Marsteller of spreading a “whisper” campaign about Google, The Daily Beast quickly discovered that the unnamed client is none other than Facebook.

Confronted with evidence, a Facebook spokesperson last night confirmed hiring Burson-Marsteller, citing how Google’s new social networking tool Social Circle raises privacy concerns, but more importantly, because Facebook resents Google’s attempts to import Facebook data to use for its social networking service.

Read more about the fracas at The Daily Beast ^[2].