The Guardian’s Jonathan Freedland publishes Rebekah Brooks private texts as news – oh, the irony
REBEKAH Brooks and a sensation of her former News of The World colleagues and associates – Daryl Jorsling, Mark Hanna, Paul Edwards, Cheryl Carter, and her husband Charlie Brooks – and in the dock at Westminster Magistrates Court, London, answering charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
The bigger story was that Rupert Murdoch’s News of The World invaded people’s private lives, listening into the phone conversations and publishing the gossip as news.
So. How does the hacker busting Guardian cover the story?
In “That Rebekah Brooks text message to David Cameron – decoded” high-minded Jonathan Freedland records text messages sent between Brooks and David Cameron:
But seriously I do understand the issue with the Times. Let’s discuss over country supper soon. On the party it was because I had asked a number of NI [News International] people to Manchester post endorsement and they were disappointed not to see you. But as always Sam was wonderful (and I thought it was OE’s [Old Etonians] were charm personfied!) I am so rooting for you tomorrow not just as a proud friend but because professionally we’re definitely in this together! Speech of your life? Yes he Cam
– Text message sent from Brooks to Cameron on 7 October 2009, on the eve of his Tory conference speech
Having listened into other people’s private chats, Freedland publishes his explantion of why they matter:
Just 87 words, the text from Rebekah Brooks to David Cameron is nevertheless as densely revealing, as packed with human drama, as the finest, most compact poetry – with added cringe value.
It’s a text n’ tell.
Freedland then produces this:
Readers of Tatler or Horse and Hound may sniff slightly at the language. Is it not a trifle gauche to refer to Old Etonians at all, let alone as OEs? Is not the phrase “country supper” itself a little embarrassing, the sort of thing one certainly has and enjoys but does not refer to so explicitly? And aren’t all those exclamation marks a little déclassé?
He says, “country supper.” You say, “us dinners.” He says “déclassé.” You say “Oooooh. Get a load of snotty!”
Posted: 15th, June 2012 | In: Reviews Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
