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Archive: News of the World

The Max Mosley verdict

24 July 2008 18:44

Categories: Opinion

Max Mosley has won his privacy case against News Group Newspapers Ltd, the publishers of the News of the World. A full PDF of the verdict is here. I am in two minds about this verdict.

On the one hand, the News of the World is a scumbag newspaper full of scumbag stories, owned by a scumbag, written by scumbags and read by scumbags. Their respect for privacy is a national disgrace, and watching media types bemoaning their apparent new-found inability to pry into people’s lives this morning has been pathetic.

It was pretty clear that the Nazi angle of the story was exaggerated somewhat by the News of the World, even if it was perhaps not totally unfounded. Thinking back to the original story, around half of it or maybe even more reflected on his family background rather than his wrongdoings in the bedroom department. The attempt to connect Max Mosley to fascism on the flimsiest of grounds, on the basis of who his parents were, was disgusting. Max Mosley did not choose his parents.

Even so, in my view there has been no satisfactory explanation for the overtones that allowed the Nazi conclusions to be drawn. The recordings include German speaking. This was explained as being down to the fact that one of the prostitutes was German. However, what has not been explained is why they were speaking English in a German accent. Phrases such as “I sink she needs more of ze punishment” (uttered by Mosley himself) and “We are the Aryan race!” do not strike me as being part of just another S&M orgy.

Max Mosley apparently had a sudden hearing loss during the phase of the conversation. Mr Justice Eady concedes that this sounds like a rather tall story, but says that it doesn’t matter because it was “clear… that the remark was unscripted”. He seems to think it was as though they were discussing whether an episode of EastEnders had Nazi overtones.

I also find it incredible that the judge has decided there was no public interest in the story. Oh really? The Crown Prince of Bahrain, Sheikh Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, was interested. King Juan Carlos of Spain was interested. Prince Albert of Monaco was interested. Galeb Majadle, Israel’s minister for sport was interested. BMW, Mercedes, Honda and Toyota were all interested. Bernie Ecclestone was interested.

The fact is, no matter how disgusting I think it is that the News of the World should invade people’s private lives, once the world had the knowledge that he indulges in that kind of behaviour it affected his ability to do his job. That in itself surely demonstrates sufficient public interest in any sense that would be meaningful to anybody not sitting in an ivory tower.

There were a lot of people who scratched their heads about the huge £100 million fine handed down to McLaren by Max Mosley last year. I think a lot of people have a feeling that they now know it is because Max Mosley gets a sexual thrill out of inflicting a harsh punishment. The next time the FIA has to hand down a punishment to someone, it will be an open goal for easy jibes. This puts Formula 1 and the FIA itself into disrepute. It ability to govern the sport properly has been diminished.

It would be bad enough if Max Mosley was just the “boss of Formula 1″ or the “head of motor sport” as the media constantly referred to him as. This probably made the public at large a lot more sympathetic towards Max Mosley than they otherwise would have been. The fact is that the FIA has a huge responsibility not just for sport but for the motor industry as a whole.

The FIA has a huge amount of weight and influence when it comes to aspects like road safety and green technologies. The FIA works together with the United Nations and the European Union among other organisations to make things happen. The FIA was pivotal in the formation of Euro NCAP, the European car safety assessment organisation.

Max Mosley is so much more than just an F1 man or motorsport president. He is responsible for cars full stop. This gives him a huge amount of power — probably more than most British politicians can dream to have.

I think the public saw this as quite a jokey story. Yet if we were talking about a cabinet minister or the CEO of a multinational company he would never have lasted this long. It might well have been a different story if the public realised just how much power Max Mosley has.

Do we really want someone who gets his sexual kicks out of inflicting pain to have so much responsibility over road safety? Do we want someone whose judgement is so questionable that he would regularly cheat on his wife and lie to his family to have such responsibilities?

As I have said countless times, Max Mosley should have done the honourable thing and resigned months ago. But we know from years of experience that Mosley is not an honourable man. Had he resigned, I would have fully supported him in his court case today.

However, his behaviour since the revelations have demonstrated that he does lack judgement and that he does have too much power. The FIA General Assembly vote simply demonstrated that it is a rotten borough, and the FIA is filled to the brim with Max Mosley lackeys.

Ideally, Max Mosley would have resigned and News Group Newspapers would have lost its court case. As it is, Max Mosley will go to bed tonight feeling vindicated. And that makes me angry.

4 comments

Thoughts on Max Mosley and the FIA (at last)

6 June 2008 19:00

Categories: Opinion

First of all, I suppose it should not be a surprise that Max Mosley won his vote of confidence. He would never have called it if he did not think he was able to win. But the margin of the victory did take me by surprise somewhat.

But if the vote was designed to assert Max Mosley’s authority, it has surely not worked. There are still the same calls for his resignation, even from people like Luca di Montezemolo (if he could make his mind up about it) and Bernie Ecclestone.

Mosley’s critics can still point out that the countries that voted for Max Mosley were mostly represented by small clubs, some of them caravan clubs who have not the slightest bit of interest in motor racing. The Dutch body, ANWB, went as far as to point out that smaller clubs potentially had a lot to gain financially from voting for Max Mosley.

It is said that the FIA clubs that voted in favour of Max Mosley represented as little as 5% of the FIA clubs’ total membership. This vote has done anything but put a lid on the controversy.

Max Mosley said in his letter a few weeks ago that he intended to stay on as FIA President, implying that he was the only person capable of keeping the FIA together in a time of “crisis”. Well, it looks to me as though if anything his desperation to keep his grubby hands on the steering wheel has exacerbated any crisis there may have been. In fact, it has created a new crisis.

The German body ADAC has already reduced its level of participation in the FIA and the American AAA is hinting that it will do much the same thing. Those are two of the biggest clubs in the FIA and such a split undoubtedly weakens the FIA. Indeed, if the ADAC continues to distance itself from the FIA, the Nürburgring may not return to the F1 calendar.

Way to contain a crisis. Of course, Max Mosley should have done the honourable thing and resigned as soon as the allegations were revealed. Any other public figure would do this. Max Mosley’s ability to hang on to power may have come as a surprise to outsiders who are acquainting themselves with this despicable little man for the first time. But we all know from the many years he has been in charge of F1 that he is not an honourable man.

I can well believe Bernie Ecclestone when he says that Max Mosley’s claim that he will give up the post in 2009 is a bluff. After all, Max Mosley already did resign in 2004 before changing his mind. And do the actions of Max Mosley over the past few months really look like the actions of someone who will be happy to give up the post in a year’s time anyway? Hardly. This man is truly desperate to hang on to his position. Who is to say that Mosley won’t try to remain in his position as FIA President until he dies as Bernie asserts?

As Bernie Ecclestone says, Max Mosley is a man who enjoys conflict. Indeed, we now know rather too much about the kicks he gets out of “robust” dealings and handing out big punishments. How can we take Max Mosley seriously any more? A lot of people thought that last year’s $100 million-sized punishment of McLaren (a value plucked straight out of a cheesy movie dialogue) was completely out of proportion. Well I think we all now suspect some new reasons behind his behaviour last year. How are we to trust the FIA the next time they decide to punish someone? The jokes will write themselves.

Max Mosley has lost all credibility. Since the story broke, the man has been uninvited left, right and centre. Uninvited from Bahrain. Uninvited from Israel. Uninvited from Spain. Unwelcome in Monaco. Meeting after meeting cancelled. This is a man who is patently unfit to do his job any more — and he knows it himself as he has offered to leave all public representation to his deputies.

He might have won the vote, but the FIA is like a banana republic. The credible voices are opposed to him. And no dodgy confidence vote victory will restore Mosley’s credibility. Will governments now be eager to start meeting him again all of a sudden? Will the royal families of Bahrain, Spain and Monaco be willing to shake his hand now? Of course not.

So where now for the FIA? As I have already suggested, it seems clear that Mosley’s decision to hang on at all costs has exacerbated or even created a conflict in F1′s corridors of power. Far from patching up any conflict, Max Mosley has worsened it. I am sure that if he resigned in the first place, a smooth transition would have been much easier to achieve than it will be now.

In Bernie Ecclestone, Max Mosley has created a formidable enemy. Who is to say now that the FIA will retain control over F1? In Clive’s interesting post on the future of the FIA, he suggests that we may be seeing the end of the FIA as governing body of F1. And why not?

I have thought for a very long time now that the FIA was far too strong — that it put far too much power in the hands of just one person. And the recent talks of a split between sporting and touring clubs rather suggests to me that there is no obvious reason why the sporting and road-motoring roles of the FIA really need to be dealt with together in the same organisation.

Does Formula 1 really need to be under the control of the FIA? I think not. Say what you want about Bernie Ecclestone, but if you ask me I would choose Bernie over Max any day. We may complain from time to time about Bernie Ecclestone, but at least he is not malicious in my view. Max Mosley is pure poison from top to bottom.

3 comments

Bernie and Max are penpals!

23 May 2008 18:42

Categories: Opinion

I always had a little suspicion in the back of my mind that Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley didn’t quite see eye-to-eye as they’d have us believe. The 2005 United States Grand Prix was a case in point. Bernie Ecclestone — of course — wanted the race to go ahead in a way that would allow the Michelin teams to compete. But Max Mosley stood in the way of any such plans.

Bernie Ecclestone must have been spitting feathers. I know I would have been (hell, I was anyway). Furthermore, the whole saga just went to show that Max Mosley does not care about the interests of Formula 1 in general. He is only interested in throwing his weight around and helping out Ferrari.

Now they are engaged in a public war of words through the medium of the letter. After Max Mosley’s stunt last week of sending a letter to the FIA club presidents in a last-ditch bid to save his bacon, Bernie Ecclestone yesterday returned the favour to try and dispel Mosley’s claims.

By now it is pretty clear that Max Mosley’s decision to hold a General Assembly in June was a ploy to buy himself some time. He will be hoping that a combination of the time spent to let the scandal die down a bit and his new conspiracy theories will be enough for him to see off a confidence vote in just over a week’s time.

But Max Mosley is surely mistaken if he thinks his letter will help put him in the clear. Keith Collantine has already cast his eye over the letter, and I have to agree with the points he has made.

Mosley claims that he has received 62 letters of support, and only 13 asking him to resign. But this total represents a small proportion of the 222 votes that are eligible to be cast in the confidence vote. And, as Keith has pointed out, those who want Mosley to stay are more likely to write to him and say so. Mosley’s attempt to demonstrate that he has widespread support falls flat.

He then goes on to suggest that allowing the next FIA President to be chosen democratically would be detrimental to the interests of the FIA. Beautiful. I would have thought that the FIA clubs would find that quite insulting.

In the letter he goes on to bring up some spurious allegations about negotiations between the FIA and the Formula One Commercial Rights Holder (CRH) (who is, to all intents and purposes, Bernie Ecclestone). Mosley reveals that the 100 Year Agreement between the FIA and the CRH is currently under renegotiation. Quite how Max Mosley has got himself into a situation where he needs to renegotiate a “100 Year Agreement” which was supposedly settled back in 2001 is glossed over in the letter.

Mosley alleges that the CRH is angling, “in effect to take over Formula One completely”. This includes giving the CRH the right to determine regulations.

However, as has been pointed out today by Pitpass, such an arrangement would not be allowed by the European Commission anyway. And this fact is the very reason why the FIA and the CRH are separate. Max Mosley seems to be suggesting that Bernie Ecclestone intends not only to ignore the EC’s demands and take over F1, but also that Bernie thinks he will get away with it. Bernie isn’t that stupid. The allegation simply doesn’t add up.

In the next sentence Max Mosley asserts that such an arrangements would be detrimental to the FIA’s ability to protect “traditional Grands Prix”. For one thing, this is clearly an attempt to gain votes from some countries whose Grands Prix are currently under threat. I do wonder exactly what powers the FIA has to protect “traditional Grands Prix”.

If such a power exists, the FIA is surely not doing a very good job of it. Last year the calendar did not contain the German Grand Prix and it will be doing the hokey-cokey with the Nürburgring-based grand prix (whatever it gets called in the end) for the foreseeable future. The Belgian Grand Prix, held at the hugely popular historic Spa-Francorchamps, has been only a semi-permanent fixture in the calendar since the start of this century.

The fact also that the French and British (and now Australian) Grands Prix are constantly operating underneath the Sword of Damocles suggests that this ability to “protect traditional Grands Prix” is a very empty concept.

Sure enough, what exactly constitutes a “traditional Grand Prix” is not defined, and seems to be just a hazy concept present only somewhere in the darkest recesses of Max Mosley’s head. It is a meaningless fig-leaf.

Mosley goes on to point out that “there has been a struggle for control of Formula One that goes back to the original Concorde Agreement in 1981.” Pointing this out is presumably supposed to scare the voters into selecting the status quo option. But this seems like a very odd tactic to me.

Max Mosley has been in charge of the sport for the majority of that period — since 1991. The fact that Max Mosley himself admits that he has been unable to put a lid on this “struggle for control” says it all. Why should the voters be persuaded to keep someone in on the basis that they can see off this “struggle for control” when that person has evidently failed to do so for the past 17 years?

He then undermines these arguments by promising that he will step down in 2009 anyway! What a joke. Max Mosley’s letter seems to be a last-ditch, desperate attempt to save his reputation. The notion that Bernie Ecclestone was somehow involved in the News of the World allegations looks paranoid (especially when there is a rather simpler explanation — News International getting its own back).

The fact is that Max Mosley himself knows that his position is untenable. This is evident from the fact that — despite beating his chest about the fact that he is attending the Monaco Grand Prix — he is spending the entire weekend locked up in his private offices and, on his rare traipses outdoors, refuses to answer any questions from the media. This whole thing stinks of someone who can’t bear to go down without bringing others with him — hence his cack-handed attempt to bring Bernie Ecclestone into the centre of this whole sorry saga.

Yesterday Bernie Ecclestone responded with a letter of his own. In it, Ecclestone asserts his support for the FIA being the “sole body governing international motor sport” and confirms that the CRH “supports and concurs” with the European Commission’s requirements to keep the commercial and regulatory branches of F1 separate. He confirms that the CRH has no interest in controlling regulations, while pointing out that the FIA’s decisions should not be detrimental to the commercial interests of F1.

In fact, there is not anything very controversial in the letter at all — which you would expect, since Bernie Ecclestone had to defend himself. But it does add to the amount of arrows that seem to point to the fact that Max Mosley is not quite telling the whole truth in his letter of last week.

What is interesting about the letter is the constant emphasis on how it is in the interests of F1 for the FIA to be led by a “respected” President. And Max Mosley is anything but respected nowadays.

The sum of these two letters has been pointed out by Clive at F1 Insight: “Max either admits to lying or has to call Bernie a liar.”

Meanwhile, there are suggestions that the Thursday press conference at the Monaco Grand Prix was rigged. The panel was stuffed full of Max Mosley’s cronies, friends and allies. There are suggestions, too, that conference moderator Bob Constanduros was pressured into asking a question about Max Mosley. Funny how all this should happen at the last grand prix before the General Assembly.

Over the course of the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, it is becoming clear that Bernie Ecclestone has completely withdrawn any support he had left for Max Mosley. First he pointed out that Mosley’s letter was just “a smokescreen to stop all the other nonsense”.

In the Telegraph he was even stronger:

Everybody’s wrong except him. Everybody was involved in the orgy except him. He is just lashing out at anything he can. If he wants me to be the enemy he should be very careful because if he makes me an enemy I could make sure that he never whips anybody again.

I’m not sure about the bravado at the end there, but Bernie is absolutely right about Max Mosley here. Throughout this whole saga, Max Mosley has been trying to build conspiracies, shift the blame, and try to make out that it’s the News of the World that has brought the sport into disrepute. But no-one forced Max Mosley to whip prostitutes in a basement. Say what you want about the privacy issue (and I certainly have my opinions there), but once the facts are in the open there is nothing you can do about it. And it is no-one’s fault but Max Mosley’s.

1 comment

Max Mosley injunction against News of the World refused

9 April 2008 18:41

Categories: News, Opinion

This morning brought yet more bad news for Max Mosley as he has lost his first legal case against News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that publishes the News of the World. Mosley had wanted the videos and images of his alleged Nazi-themed sex orgy to permanently removed from the News of the World.

But today that injunction was refused and the newspapers has hit back with a double-whammy. In addition to republishing the original video, the newspaper has uploaded two audio clips that depict Max Mosley speaking English in a mock German accent. One of these is the already infamous quote, “Zey need more of ze punishment I sink.”

The purpose behind publishing the new audio clips is to counter Max Mosley’s claims that the only reason he spoke German during the session was because some of the prostitutes themselves were German. This is at the heart of Mosley’s attempts to disprove claims that the session had a Nazi theme. But it does not explain why Mosley would be speaking English in a fake German accent.

It is very interesting that, as Pitpass noted last week, Max Mosley is not suing the News of the World for libel. You would think that if the allegations were false then Mosley would have little difficulty in winning a case against a newspaper which has put forward such over-the-top and cartoon-like allegations. This would particularly be the case in the UK which has famously strict libel laws. The fact that he is not suing for libel makes Mosley’s denials seem pretty empty.

Max Mosley appears mostly to be concerned about the invasion of privacy which the FIA has described as “apparently illegal”. It is worth remembering that less than a year ago such apparent illegalities were of no concern to Max Mosley as long as it assisted him in his personal vendetta against Ron Dennis.

As Grandprix.com reminds us, the World Motor Sport Council met in September to discuss a list of text messages and phone calls between Mike Coughlan and Nigel Stepney. The validity of the evidence was brought into question. Here was Mosley’s response:

The World Council’s only concern is whether that list is accurate and truthful. We are not concerned with whether there are issues over how that is obtained. Unless there is evidence that it is forged or inaccurate, we will take it on its face value. We do not enter a debate about Italian law; we have neither the time nor the skills for that.

Funny how he sings a different tune today. Max Mosley’s defence appears to be crumbling.

Today’s events, however, represent a real legal stumbling block for Max Mosley. The injunction was refused on the basis that the video is already in the public domain and you cannot reasonably expect to remove it from the public domain. This is the same argument that has been used by those who are arguing for Max Mosley to resign. It is a good point.

However, as Craigblog points out, it is nevertheless surprising that this ruling went against Max Mosley. Had the injunction been granted, it would have sent out a strong message to everyone about the use of this video.

Now, media outlets have effectively been given absolute free reign to use it. As we have seen, the News of the World has now taken the opportunity to upload new clips. And at lunchtime today I was amazed to hear the original video clip being played in full on BBC Radio 5 Live. If the video was in the public domain in the first place, today it is in the public domain deluxe.

Meanwhile, it has been announced today that the FIA General Assembly will now meet on 3rd June. This will include a confidence vote which will be held as a secret ballot. I would be amazed if Max Mosley were to win the vote. Meanwhile, the FIA will be lumbered with a lame duck President for almost two more months.

9 comments

Why Max Mosley has to go

2 April 2008 19:05

Categories: Uncategorized

Yesterday, Max Mosley finally responded to the News of the World‘s allegations. And I have to say, if the allegations were not enough to make one think that Max Mosley can no longer be the President of the FIA, then his pathetic letter ought to be.

The letter has been taken apart by Ollie, Negative Camber and Clive.

One the face of it the letter is a confession. However, he denies the “Nazi connotation”. This might be key if Mosley wants to survive as FIA President. It is generally agreed that if it was a mere sex scandal, people would not have been so offended. It is the alleged Nazi element that has riled most people.

But can we be convinced that there was no Nazi connotation? Planet-F1 says that Mosley could be heard on the video saying in a German accent, “She needs more of ze punishment.” And according to Clive,

not only were the participants dressed in Nazi uniforms, but at least one was attired in concentration camp pajamas.

Whatever Mosley’s explanation that this is not a Nazi fantasy is, it had better be convincing.

We now come on to another uncomfortable point of the letter, which is Mosley’s seeming implication that the fact that this information came about as a result of a private investigation somehow exonerates him. We can see that this is what Mosley believes as he continually puts the blame for his current predicament on those who did the investigation, and not himself for behaving in the way that he did.

Regrettably you are now familiar with the results of this covert investigation and I am very sorry if this has embarrassed you or the club…

I shall now devote some time to those responsible for putting this into the public domain but above all I need to repair the damage to my immediate family who are the innocent and unsuspecting victims of this deliberate and calculated personal attack.

How utterly outrageous. Max Mosley’s family are not “the innocent and unsuspecting victims of this deliberate and calculated personal attack.” They are the innocent and unsuspecting victims of Max Mosley’s offensive behaviour.

I have said often enough that an invasion of someone’s private life is not acceptable. I do not for one second subscribe to the News of the World style of journalism. Samuel has been particularly vocal in the comments to a previous post here. For instance:

Western democracies defend the right of privacy for everyone. The devil himself should have the right to maintain his private life private. I firmly believe in civil rights so for me Max is the only victim. Period. For me it’s the end of the story.

This may be true, but the fact is that nothing can be done about that now. It is a sunk cost. The damage has been done, and Max Mosley’s privacy has been invaded. Wringing our hands about that will do nothing.

We now have to face the apparent reality that Max Mosley has hired prostitutes for an allegedly Nazi-themed sex orgy. The motor racing community has to ask itself: now that we have knowledge of Max Mosley’s behaviour, is he an appropriate person to be running the FIA? And the answer must surely be ‘no’.

Mosley himself knows this. It appears as though he will not attend the Bahrain Grand Prix. Bernie Ecclestone revealed that the Bahraini Royal Family would not appreciate it. No shit, Sherlock.

So will they appreciate it in 12 months’ time when Formula 1 next races in Bahrain? Will the King Juan Carlos appreciate it when F1 moves to Spain in a few weeks’ time? We can go on throughout the calendar. No-one will appreciate it. This severely restricts the ability of Formula 1′s powers-that-be to do the deals that are essential to the survival of the sport. For this reason alone, Max Mosley must resign.

But as if that was not enough, the rumours that have come out since then have rubbed salt into the wound as far as I’m concerned. You can be assured that Max Mosley is not embarrassed about these rumours, and indeed he has partially confirmed them, without a hint of shame, in his letter.

It demonstrates everything we know about Mosley’s arrogance, unsavoury thirst for power and complete self interest that he refuses to stand down as FIA President. Not only that, but he now apparently wants to stand for another term as FIA President! You would never expect Mosley to do the honourable thing, but this just takes the biscuit.

Then there is the fact — which Mosley parades in his letter — that he has received “a very large number of messages of sympathy and support from those within the FIA”. This just demonstrates that the FIA has been filled with Max Mosley lackeys and yes-men over the past decade and a half.

If for anything else, Max Mosley has revealed himself to be unfit for the role of the FIA’s Presidency due to his failure to face up to the truth and for his despicable attempts to blame others for his own wrongdoings.

It is clear that Max Mosley has brought the sport of Formula 1 into disrepute. There can be no doubt about this. This was, you will recall, the same thing that McLaren were found guilty of last year in Max Mosley’s personal, vendetta-driven “spy(sic)gate” farrago. I await the $100 million fine landing on Mosley’s desk. But of course, under Mosley’s direction, you can never expect the FIA to hand out punishments consistently.

Update: Max Mosley is now claiming that the only reason he was speaking German was because some of the prostitutes were German.

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