Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

Who is Rebekah Brooks? I don't mean this facetiously, but there are lots of holes in her bio which even the Vanity Fair article about her makes clear.

Well, David, I made a BBC4 documentary about Rebekah Wade as she then was back in 2004.

Almost noone would speak about her.

The "Women in Media" sisterhood did indeed act as if she was a dear sister, and assorted male hacks who would normally talk about anything whether they were informed or not kept their gobs shut.

Rebekah actually started as a secretary to Eddie Shah. Yes, that Eddie Shah of the short-lived Today tabloid newspaper.

As a completely unrelated aside, Shah was recently in the news.....

Rupert Murdoch is Power personified. He's championed several talented, very strong-willed, hacks such as Kelvin McKenzie and Andrew Neil, and then cast them out when they were no longer useful or their ego was too challenging. He's tossed three wives as well, including the mothers of his various brats.

Of those few sources who would speak to me, not one talked of Rebekah's great journalistic flair and insight, of her burning moral conscience, of the great articles she had written as a young hackette.

I researched Rebekah on and off for several months.

Not once did I catch a glimpse of her core, her soul.

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar