Brooks: No sympathy

London, July 15: Rebekah Brooks, 43, one of the most powerful women in the British media, resigned today, brought down by the phone hacking scandal.

Brooks, who apparently sacrificed the chance to have children so that she could devote her life to tabloid journalism, first as editor of the News of the World and then of The Sun, bowed to the inevitable by stepping down as chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s News International.

Brooks has maintained she did not know her senior reporters were bribing policemen to obtain information and hiring private investigators to listen to the mobile phones messages of murder victims, relatives of soldiers killed in Afghanistan, celebrities and politicians — anyone whose indiscretions might yield a juicy story.

A spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said Brooks had made “the right decision”.

Brooks is not off the hook, though. Next week she and Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation, along with the latter’s son, James Murdoch, will be grilled by MPs on the Commons Culture, Media Sport select committee.

Murdoch junior is the chief executive in Europe of News Corps.

News Corporation, the parent company of News International, has now been forced to withdraw its bid to buy the 61 per cent of the shares of BSkyB that it does not own in the hugely profitable satellite television channel.

Publicly, Murdoch senior, who is 80, has supported Brooks almost like a favourite daughter — though the cynical suggested this was to deflect mounting public anger over the phone hacking away from his son.

The Daily Telegraph reported today that Murdoch’s daughter, Elizabeth, has been privately “railing” against Brooks, saying she “f****d the company”.

Brooks was subjected to hostile barracking by News of the World staff when she told them in a face to face meeting that the paper was being closed. They all thought it was unfair she was clinging on to her job while they were losing theirs.

It is fair to say public sympathy has not been with Brooks. The general opinion was that she ought to have known the phone hacking that was going on during her watch.

Today, Brooks did not risk another unpleasant confrontation with remaining staff. She announced her resignation in an internal email to staff which, in the best traditions of Fleet Street, was promptly leaked to other papers — as Brooks knew it would.

In her email, Brooks said: “At News International we pride ourselves on setting the news agenda for the right reasons. Today we are leading the news for the wrong ones.”