Thursday 24 July 2008

The right verdict but a bad result


There is always a certain pleasure to be gained in seeing an individual, even a rich and influential one, winning against some of the more the prurient and dishonest elements within the tabloid press, and I am delighted to note that Motor Sport boss Max Mosley has won his court case against the News of the World. who have been found to have invaded his privacy without just cause. The fig leaf with which the Sunday rag attempted to cover the nakedness of its hypocrisy, the claim that Mosley's sex games had a "Nazi" theme, has been blown away by the judge who declared it the lie it clearly was.

Irrespective of what some may think of sadomasochistic games, when the participants are consenting adults they are of interest only to those adult participants. Therefore, I congratulate Max Mosley for standing up to the unpleasant people, who attempted to bring him down, and for whom I would have more respect for had they openly admitted that they exposed his private sex life for no better reason than that the more prurient thrills they give their readers, the more newspapers they sell.

Let us hope that, even though his reputation has been permanently damaged, Mosley can now be given the necessary privacy to rebuild his his private life.

However, pleased as I may be to see someone triumph against the more scummy end of the press, we should not underestimate the damage which this verdict has inflicted upon legitimate investigative journalism.

There may be no legitimate public interest in consensual S&M games, however there may well be very legitimate public interest in other forms of private behavior on the part of public figures, and this judgement will inevitably discourage legitimate journalism, which is why the News of the World should be condemned in no uncertain terms. The judgement in this case was inevitable, because it was the right verdict in these circumstances, however, it is the circumstances which should never have occurred.

With so much genuine news being suppressed and distorted, the fact that a British newspaper is prepared to sell its soul for the sake of exposing trivia should depress us all.

Our news media, once respected across the globe, is now a disgrace, castrated by political correctness at one end yet beset by a cruel form of salaciousness at the other. Whatever the News of the World may claim, they had no justification for what they did, their story was nothing more than vindictive and nasty gutter journalism, written for no reason other than to fill their pages with descriptions of kinky sex.

When Moseley called them on it, they attempted to brazen it out, but they failed, and in the process what is left of of an honourable free press suffered further damage.


1 comment:

Benny said...

As long as no laws are broken then consenting adults should be able to get up to whatever they like in private. In fact, having a spot of what you fancy helps you to let off steam and therefore better enables you to handle life's more mundane daily stresses.

So what if there had been a Nazi theme? It's just a kinky game. Is it against the law to dress up as a Nazi in private? I don't think so. Prince Harry did it in public. What right has anyone to dictate what someone else's idea of sexual gratification should be? Actors in films play Nazis but no one is suggesting that their careers should be destroyed because of it.

People shouldn't be snooping on others enjoying sex games in private. And if they do, they shouldn't then be putting it in a newspaper. If the editor of the "News" of the World thinks it's ok to secretly film people doing nothing wrong in private then why doesn't he let Max Mosley film him enjoying a session of bedroom Olympics? Or sitting on the toilet, perhaps? Or undergoing a surgical procedure to correct haemorrhoids?

I'm pleased that the cockroach who did the filming has been exposed and that her husband has been ousted from his job as an MI5 officer. Ha, ha! Serves you right. That'll teach you not to be a tabloid pimp.