Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News Corp's crisis-hit British newspaper arm, reads a copy of The Times newspaper as she leaves News International building in Wapping, London June 11, 2011.OLIVIA HARRIS/Reuters
Who is a target of angry former tabloid employees?
That would be R-E-B-E-K-A-H B-R-O-O-K-S.
Departing staff at News of the World, the now-defunct British tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, have given former editor Rebekah Brooks the flip-off in the form of a crossword, reports The Telegraph.
Ms. Brooks, chief executive of British newspaper publisher New International - the main U.K. subsidiary of News Corp. - was skewered in the paper's Quickie Crossword with clues like "Brook," "stink," "catastrophe" and "digital protection."
Clues from the News of the World's Cryptic Crossword included "criminal enterprise," "mix in prison," "string of recordings" and "will fear new security measure."
Answers to the crosswords were no less scathing with the words "stench," "racket," "tart" and "disaster" alluding to Ms. Brooks.
A source at News of the World says that Ms. Brooks ordered two loyal reporters from the Sun, another Murdoch-owned tabloid, to search the paper's final edition for any subliminal messages attacking her, according to The Telegraph.
"She brought in two very senior Sun journalists to go through every line on every page with a fine-tooth comb to ensure there were no libels or any hidden mocking messages of the chief executive," the source said. "But they failed and we've had the last laugh."
A secret recording revealed that Ms. Brooks was confronted by angry News of the World employees on Friday when she informed them that the tabloid would be folding.
"You're making the whole of News International toxic," an unidentified male staffer says to Ms. Brooks. "There's an arrogance that you think we would want to work for you."
News of the World, which had operated for 168 years, is currently embroiled in a phone-hacking scandal in which the paper is alleged to have hacked the voice mail of a murdered girl. Ms. Brooks was News of the World's editor during the alleged hacking.
Tell us: Was this an appropriate move? How would you give a misbehaving boss a going away present?