Former Ford public relations chief Jason Vines made a name for himself in the automotive press by coming up with some wild ways to introduce new vehicles. But now he's making some interesting claims about Ford that have nothing to do with car debuts.
In 2001, Vines was leading Ford's PR, and those with good memories will recall that Ford was embroiled in a scandal involving Firestone tires and its Explorer SUVs at the time.
In his upcoming book, What Did Jesus Drive? Crisis PR in Cars, Computers and Christianity, Vines says that he and Ford's then-general counsel John Rintamaki believed their offices, cell phones and cars were bugged for three months during 2001, The Detroit Bureau reported.
Recording people without their knowledge, even on company-issued phones, is a felony in Michigan, according to The Detroit News.
Vines goes on to imply that Bill Ford Jr. was leaking information to the press in a bid to get Ford's then-CEO Jacques Nasser fired.
Ford, of course, has little to say on the matter.
"The accounts detailed in the book about the Firestone tire crises happened more than a decade ago under a very different leadership team at Ford," Ford spokesperson Susan Krusel wrote in an email to The Detroit Bureau. "As with any retelling of history, memories and accuracy differ from person to person, and this account is no different."
If what Vines says is true, it provides an interesting look into a turbulent time at the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker, but with 13 years of history between then and now it probably won't mean anything significant, other than the fact that it's possible that Bill Ford Jr. or someone else high in the ranks was bending the rules for the sake of inter-company politics.
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