Jack Valenti

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Person.png Jack Valenti   Sourcewatch WikiquoteRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(businessman, deep state functionary)
Jack-valenti-164x299.jpg
BornJack Joseph Valenti
September 5, 1921
Houston, Texas, United States
DiedApril 26, 2007 (Age 85)
Washington DC, United States
Alma materUniversity of Houston, Harvard University
Member ofCouncil on Foreign Relations/Historical Members
Special Assistant to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson

Employment.png Special Assistant to the President

In office
November 22, 1963 - June 1, 1966
Appointed byLBJ
Preceded byDavid Francis Powers
Liaison with the news media during President John F. Kennedy and VP Lyndon B. Johnson's November 22, 1963 visit to Dallas, Texas, then under LBJ.

Jack Joseph Valenti was an American political advisor and lobbyist who was Special Assistant to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. He was also the longtime president of the Motion Picture Association of America. He was generally regarded as one of the most influential pro-copyright lobbyists in the world.

Early career

Valenti served in the US Army Air Force in WW2 before going to the University of Houston, where he graduated in 1946 with a BA.

He then joining the oil company Humble Oil's advertising department. In the early 50s he co-founded his own advertising company, with oil company Conoco as its first client. After meeting senator Lyndon B. Johnson in 1956 the company branched out into political consulting. They advised on the presidential election of Kennedy-Johnson in 1960.[1]

Valenti was the official liaison with the news media during President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson's November 22, 1963, visit to Dallas, Texas, and Valenti was in the presidential motorcade when Kennedy was assassinated. Valenti was pictured on the plane when Johnson was sworn in as Kennedy’s successor hours after the assassination. Valenti then became the first "special assistant" to Johnson's White House and lived there for the first two months of Johnson's presidency.[2] What exactly he did for Johnson is not clear.

CIA

Released documents, while not conclusive, add yet more weight to the contention that Valenti was not just friendly to the government but was an active CIA asset in Hollywood.[3][4][5][6]

Kennedy cover-up

The History Channel, in 2003, was forced by political pressure and by threat of legal action to stop airing the very popular seventh, eighth, and ninth episodes of the series The Men Who Killed Kennedy: "The Smoking Guns," "The Love Affair," and "The Guilty Men." Not only did The History Channel agree to stop broadcasting the three episodes (which were getting very high ratings), but it also pulled all of the DVDs from stores, and agreed to stop selling the three episodes.[7]

To achieve this, former LBJ aides Jack Valenti and Bill Moyers engaged in a high-profile publicity campaign against The History Channel, and Jack Valenti (who had long been the chief lobbyist in the nation's capital for the motion picture industry) summoned the executive producer of episodes 7, 8, and 9 (including the LBJ episode, "The Guilty Men") — Dolores Gavin — to Washington, D.C., where she was given the "Valenti treatment," i.e., browbeaten and intimidated in private. Shortly afterwards, The History Channel succumbed to this overt censorship.[7]



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