With Brooks arrested, tabloid insiders open up

[Blue_Tires]

With their former boss under arrest, tabloid reporters are beginning to reveal secrets of what it was like to work in Rebekah Brooks' newsrooms.

Disguises, bullying, lies dropped into copy — all were part of the pressure-cooker atmosphere that prevailed, according to former journalists who spoke to The Associated Press.

Michael Taggart, who worked at The Sun in 2003, said the paper under Brooks was marked by "ruthlessness and misogyny."

"The reporters who were prepared to subject themselves and others to the most ridicule were the ones earmarked for success," said Taggart, who now works as a consultant for London-based MRM.

Insiders say the whatever-it-takes mantra was common across the tabloid world. But the pressure at News International — publisher of the Sun and the News of the World, the now defunct paper at the center of the phone hacking scandal — was particularly intense.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/07/20/international/i034043D05.DTL#ixzz1SfuWfstF

[dipsydoodle]

1. She's not under arrest.

:shrug:

They must be dreaming. She was arrested and released the same day. Today , from memory , is Wednesday.

I can see below she's on bail - to reappear in October.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. She is out on bail. And no longer boss of the paper.

So I guess they feel free to talk.
but I wonder how many will end up testifying.

[sabrina 1]

3. Isn't that how it usually works?

When someone is arrested and posts bail?

[dipsydoodle]

5. Yes

here in the UK anyway.

:hi:

[GliderGuider]

4. It seems like a distinction without a difference in this case.

She has indeed been arrested, even though she is no longer technically "under arrest" - as in, deprived of her liberty. They're not dreaming so much as guilty of colloquial imprecision. Sue them.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. no surprise there