Tom Crone justifies Screws porn movie
Max Mosley is suing the Screws for invading his privacy and fabricating a ‘Nazi’ element to his sexual activities. With their brazen disregard for public standards, they released their secretly filmed tape of events – which bore not a lot of resemblance to the story in the paper – on their pornographic “family” website.
Tom Crone, legal boss at the News of the Screws, says that the paper believes a healthy society should respect the public’s right to know “legitimate facts about the behaviour and activities of public figures and leaders. This [Max Mosley] case raises fundamental issues about the rapidly advancing law of privacy and the extent to which it allows powerful people to suppress information and stifle free speech. Whilst the law was properly introduced to guarantee respect for private and family life, it is in danger of being hijacked by the rich, famous and influential for all the wrong reasons. The scale and ramifications of this case go way beyond this single story and are likely to affect every form of media from print to broadcast and particularly publishers of biographies of living people.”
Tom Crone is an intelligent, perceptive, some say erudite man.
There can be only two reasons why a man of his calibre would be spouting tosh like this.
1. He is being very well paid for it
2. He loves a scrap
Dangerous reasons for supporting a cynical and dishonest organ like the Screws which has contributed mightily to the general lowering of public standards in behaviour by glamorizing the sexual excesses and drug-taking of celebrities to whom millions of young Britons relate.
Mosley is going for exemplary (rather than light-weight compensatory) damages, which Crone hadn’t bargained for when his editor told him what they were going to do.
Mazher Mahmood is evidently on the way out, now his worn out old Fake Sheikh cover is shot to shreds. Maybe if Tom’s scrapping costs the Screws too much in damages payments, Master James will see him off too.
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Hello Peter
Listening to you at the Leveson Inquiry today, I thought you might be interested to have a look at ...
@Fleur,
I suspect he still has a job because he knows where the bodies are buried. 
Not much to write home about Neville? 
hi peter,great website. i bought your book news of the world and managed to get hold of CAMERA ASSASSIN 2 ...
they finally caught the little toad if he can lie at a small tribunal he certainly can rely on ...
Comment by Dr. F.W.Knox on 11 July 2008:
In the land of “tosh” belongs the claim that Mosley has been “scrupulously promoting fair play”. Peter Burden obviously knows little or nothing about formula 1. Perhaps he could give us an erudite view on the vicious attack on Ron Dennis and McLaren while doibg nothing to Ferreri and Renault for the same behaviour.
From all the multiple comments to many articles about Herr Mosley over the past few weeks, it is apparent that the great majority of persons are nauseated by this bully boy.
Look at the video and tell us what ‘prison scene’ it represented.
In the German language, the nazi era is the ONLY one that fits
Comment by Helen on 15 July 2008:
What, so Germans stopped having prisons after the Nazi era? German + uniform does not equal Nazi, and saying otherwise is bollocks. I don’t particularly like Mosley, and I know nothing about him professionally, but sexual freedom should be be just that. Freedom. The News of the World are tainting the idea of press freedom – they are nasty little worms trying to muckrake, not real journalists.
What exactly is it about an old man getting spanked by whores that serves the ‘Public Interest’ exactly? It’s irrelevant, and the News of the World using the ‘Public Interest’ argument makes it harder for real journalists to argue that case when a story genuinely of interest.
Comment by Peter on 16 July 2008:
Responding to Doc Knox…
I concede that I don’t know a great deal about F1, but I have no doubt that, like all sports, strong and opposing views are held about many aspects of it. In these circumstances, those who hold the other view and are resolute in maintaining it are often perceived as Bully Boys. Was Maclaren’s behaviour identical to that of Renault and Ferrari? I don’t think so.
Besides, as I have argued eleswhere on this blog, we all – good, bad and bland – have a right to our own personal privacy, and I don’t wish to see the NoW encouraged in its stance as national arbiter of sexual morality – do you?
Comment by Dr. F.W.Knox on 30 July 2008:
No Helen, Germany still has prisons. However, I dont think they measure genitals , shave bottoms or take rectal temperatures. I am pretty sure they dont bend them over nude and thrash the hell out of them. I rest my case.
Perhaps you should learn a little about F1 to give some background into why this as more that an old pervert soliciting and procuring.
To Peter I would say that this man is an absolute liability to F1.
The Bahrain Royal Family, the Monaco Royal Family and the Israeli Government also agree. Plus a few million fans.
Comment by Dr. F.W.Knox on 30 July 2008:
In a couple of news items today, Mosley is reported as admitting that he has brought F1 into disrepute. Which is what the teams, major motoring associations representing millions of members, and the F1 followers have said from the beginning.
Comment by Philip Townsend on 15 October 2008:
When I saw ‘Fake Sheikhs and Royal Trappings’ on Amazon I through ah! this must be a sensible book about the red tops by the legendary crime
reporter from the great days of Fleet Street. The truth is that the only connection is that you both have the same name. Your book shows you are not a journalist of any note and the book is a complete load of often repeated rubbish. I understand that as expected it is being out sold by a book of a similar name by a truly great practitioner of
investigative journalism Mr Mazher Mahmood apparently known to you as
Mazher but to everyone else as Maz. Why don’t you stick to things you appear to understand.
Comment by Peter on 19 October 2008:
To Philip Townsned.
I’m not sure that your unclear accusation merits a response, but if you had read my book, which you patently haven’t, you would be aware that I am not a journalist of any kind, notable or otherwise. It was precisely from that perspective that I approached the task of examining the attitudes and pratices of the News of the World. I have no wish to be confused with Peter Burden, formerly of the Daily Mail, who has not produced a book of any sort – nor indeed a crime report in decades. Legendary? Je ne croix pas.
Give Mazher my regards.