Max Mosley Responds To Sex Scandal
April 2, 2008 by Negative Camber
Filed under Prime & Option
Max Mosley has responded to the sex scandal that has him embroiled in embarrassment and possibly litigation with News of the World.
In a statement released to FIA members and carried at Autosport, Max has responded and made certain that he will remain as the FIA president and will also seek legal action against a person or group he claims has been out to set him up for exposure.
This sounds a bit familiar when Hillary Clinton claimed a “vast right-wing conspiracy” behind the attacks on her husband following the Monica Lewinsky scandal. But unlike Hillary, I can actually believe Max’s claims as there are many who would be put off by his treatment of McLaren during last years espionage scandal. Max may have made a few enemies who feel his $100M fine was out of line. In other words, there is motive and opportunity to justify the setup.
That being said and wanting to give Max the benefit of the doubt and move on; I would like to address the actual response. There are a few things that trouble me and I wish Max would have spent more time considering his words. There is a trend, certainly in American politics, that when someone has done something really boneheaded; they release a statement that says something like. “ I am sorry you are offended” or “I am sorry you were embarrassed”. Here is the first of Max’s comments:
“I am very sorry if this has embarrassed you or the club”
The word “this” should be replaced with the word “I”. The group “specialising in a covert investigation” of his private life and background did not embarrass the members of the FIA; Max did.
“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”
His family is indeed the innocent and unsuspecting victims in this scandal. This statement, however, implies that his family isn’t victims of his actions so much as they are victims of the exposing of his actions. As the covert group has initiated a personal attack and that this is the most egregious thing happening and not his errant behavior and lack of judgment.
I have always respected Max for a host of reasons. I have looked upon his decisions as shrewd and iconic in many ways. I consider him a very intelligent man and representative of the FIA. Unfortunately I find this statement patronizing, in poor taste and dismissive of the accountability of his actions irrespective of its association to F1 directly or indirectly. A disappointment of large proportions given his unyielding quest for truth, integrity and justice concerning Ron Dennis.
Simply put; since when does our personal life not reflect or impact our public life? The implication is that we all have dark, seedy personal lives and pretend when we are at work or in public. I apologize if I do not believe that the majority of the world is leading secret lives of desperation, deceit and unethical machinations.
Mr. Mosley, I will share with you the very advice I gave Mr. Dennis; the way you handle this adversity is more important than the actual adversity itself. Stand up, be a man of integrity and please take accountability for your actions. You demanded as much from Mr. Dennis; now I think it would be good of you to demand it from yourself. If you do that; I say let’s move on and forgive and forget. I still like you Max, I really do, but don’t let me down tiger! Do the right thing.
This just doesn’t look good for Max right now, does not look good at all anyway you try to spin it at this point the damage is done. More importantly, the damage is now attached to Max Mosley right now and it may not go away for a while which in turn he should resign for the betterment of the sport.
On a brighter note, Jean Todt is ready to go and free and clear of any Ferrari commitments.
Funny how that works out isn’t it? It’ll be weird seeing that red jumper with an FIA logo on it instead of a horse and shell. ;)
Max is turning into quite a funambulist already and it’s only been two days. ;)
Come on, Camber, please publish the full Mosley statement. As I implied in my comment yesterday, there was clearly more to this story than met the eye due to the lurid details in the News of the Screws. It seems as though that valiant organ has been implicated unwittingly in this plot against Mosley. With him being a high profile lawyer, I should think they will be opening their cheque book soon. They may even be going back to jail, or was that another guy who snooped on the Queen’s personal voicemail?
I understand this is a blog, and you have to be controversial, but this is now an open debate on what is and isn’t personal. I totally disagree with your position. As you seem to share my interest in politics, why not consider Nick Clegg? He has been praised for admitting to countless sexual partners. A rare thing in politics, that.
Mosley has been set up, pure and simple. The only reason this story is damaging is because of the Nazi connotations, which he has denied. So I stick to my guns: there is no story here, just gossip, and I fully support Max.
The group “specialising in a covert investigation” = Ron Dennis :D
Lucas S.
Paul,
I assume you have all read the entire statement so I do not publish it here as it was not sent to us. As for the setup; that may or may not be true but the fact remains that how Max handles this is important and to me, he has done very poorly so far. A double standard from what he demanded of Ron Dennis. If you are new to the site, you may not be aware that I was very hard on Ron as well.
Bottom line is, you may not think it is a story or that it has anything to do with F1 but we disagree on that point. It does impact F1 whether we want it to or not. I like Max but I think he made a grave error in judgment morally and ethically. That does tarnish his judgment abilities in other areas. That perception may be wrong but it is a natural reaction. I do not praise people for hiring hookers and having odd sex romps behind their wife’s back. Especially those in seats of judgment. I expect leaders who have the power to affect others lives through their judgment to be beyond reproach.
That being said, I also believe in forgiveness but Max’s statement is just another example of the current trend in apologizing that we were all offended by the event and not apologizing for his actions. A slick way of avoiding accountability and blaming others for his misjudgment. I find it in poor taste.
Lucas,
While the world looks at Ron as the covert group; we both know it’s Force Lucas. :)
it sounds like NC’s main issue is that max did this behind his wife’s back and was deceitful, and therefore, he does not have the right to pass judgement on someone like ron dennis who was involved to some extent with spying and using information illegally obtained from a competitor’s team to his team’s advantage.
so…if max’s wife had joined him that day with the hookers and was cool with max’s own particular style of paddle-shifting, max should be allowed to stay?
Unless I am wrong, soliciting prostitutes in England is illegal with or without his wife. I have issue with that. I also have issue with his statement as it is hypocritical of his actions and words during during spygate.
a) there is nothing wrong with what he did
b) it was a pathetic set-up by the NoTW (http://glitterditch.com/2008/04/telling-tales.html)
c) if you could get sacked for being a bit of a pervert most of us would be permanently unemployed, and the economy would swiftly collapse
Welcome to F1B Gemma. You and Noddy will get along just fine. :) He shares some of your opinions on the issue.