Jack Valenti has a stroke

[Myra Bronstein]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/...roke/index.html

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Jack Valenti, who served as president of the Motion Picture Association of America for nearly four decades, has suffered a stroke and has been taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, officials said.

Valenti, 85, suffered the stroke "recently," said a woman at the Motion Picture Association of America, which he led for 38 years.

...

In 1952, he co-founded Weekley & Valenti, an advertising agency.

Valenti's agency handled the press during the November 22, 1963, visit of President Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson to Dallas. Valenti was in the motorcade six cars behind the president's when Kennedy was assassinated.

Less than an hour later, Johnson had hired Valenti as special assistant to the president and the two men were flying to Washington aboard Air Force One.

..."

So how much does anyone know about this guy who was right at the crime scene to handle Johnson's PRopaganda?

Is it odd that he would be in a presidential motorcade that day?

How did he come to be in the motorcade? As Johnson's special guest?

Edited March 28, 2007 by Myra Bronstein

[Dawn Meredith]

He was also very instrumental in getting "The Men Who Killed Kennedy" stopped from being aired on the History Channel.

Dawn

[Mark Stapleton]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/...roke/index.html

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Jack Valenti, who served as president of the Motion Picture Association of America for nearly four decades, has suffered a stroke and has been taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, officials said.

Valenti, 85, suffered the stroke "recently," said a woman at the Motion Picture Association of America, which he led for 38 years.

...

In 1952, he co-founded Weekley & Valenti, an advertising agency.

Valenti's agency handled the press during the November 22, 1963, visit of President Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson to Dallas. Valenti was in the motorcade six cars behind the president's when Kennedy was assassinated.

Less than an hour later, Johnson had hired Valenti as special assistant to the president and the two men were flying to Washington aboard Air Force One.

..."

So how much does anyone know about this guy who was right at the crime scene to handle Johnson's PRopaganda?

Is it odd that he would be in a presidential motorcade that day?

How did he come to be in the motorcade? As Johnson's special guest?

According to Robert Dallek's LBJ bio, LBJ first met Valenti at a businessmen's luncheon in 1956. From p.151:

"Impressed with the strength of the senator's personality, Valenti had written a flattering newspaper column about him and then in 1960 managed the Kennedy-Johnson advertising campaign in Texas. After he became President, Johnson brought Valenti to the White House where he began serving as everything from a 'glorified valet' to a chief of staff. He did 'whatever needed to be done'. He was a major liason with Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen; soothed the feelings of congressmen whose districts had lost an appropriation; moved projects through the bureaucratic web; and functioned as Johnson's Ambassador in telling important people things they did not want to hear."

If that report is correct in stating that Valenti handled the press in Dallas it is very interesting indeed. Perhaps the bosses of the major news networks were persuaded to allow Valenti to co-ordinate the coverage of events as they unfolded in Dallas. By LBJ perhaps?

As far as I'm aware, the media in general and the media bosses in particular have recieved scant focus for their role in the crime of the century. The media has been the driving force behind the 43 year cover-up and they have occupied the enviable position of largely determining what the US public have been permitted to see and hear.

FWIW, I think your suspicions are on the money, Myra.

[Jack White]

The late Madeleine Brown, LBJ mistress who bore his son, said Lyndon had another

mistress in Houston who also had an offspring, and that as in Brown's case, Lyndon

found her an appropriate "foster husband". According to Madeleine, that fellow

was named Valenti. Never been verified, so at this stage it is merely gossip.

Interesting that both Valenti and Madeleine were both worked at public relations

agencies.

Jack

[Charles Black]

As I have always held a great deal of comtempt for this prime "cover upper", I don't mind saying that I am surprised that Valenti had not choked to death many years ago "on his own lies" !

Charlie Black

[Sid Walker]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/...roke/index.html

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Jack Valenti, who served as president of the Motion Picture Association of America for nearly four decades, has suffered a stroke and has been taken to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, officials said.

Valenti, 85, suffered the stroke "recently," said a woman at the Motion Picture Association of America, which he led for 38 years.

...

In 1952, he co-founded Weekley & Valenti, an advertising agency.

Valenti's agency handled the press during the November 22, 1963, visit of President Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson to Dallas. Valenti was in the motorcade six cars behind the president's when Kennedy was assassinated.

Less than an hour later, Johnson had hired Valenti as special assistant to the president and the two men were flying to Washington aboard Air Force One.

..."

So how much does anyone know about this guy who was right at the crime scene to handle Johnson's PRopaganda?

Is it odd that he would be in a presidential motorcade that day?

How did he come to be in the motorcade? As Johnson's special guest?

This is mindblowing Myra. Well spotted!

Assuming the report is accurate about Valenti handling the proess in Dallas on the murder day, I wonder how he got that appointment? Presumebaly there's a paper trail? Someone in Government appointed him to that role. Who?

[Sid Walker]

As far as I'm aware, the media in general and the media bosses in particular have recieved scant focus for their role in the crime of the century. The media has been the driving force behind the 43 year cover-up and they have occupied the enviable position of largely determining what the US public have been permitted to see and hear.

FWIW, I think your suspicions are on the money, Myra.

Spot on Mark.

IMO, FWIW, tracking hte people who spun obvious lies - many of whom were media folk - is the route to determining who was behind the assassination. I'd make the same claim in relation to 9/11.

[Myra Bronstein]

He was also very instrumental in getting "The Men Who Killed Kennedy" stopped from being aired on the History Channel.

Dawn

Ah, that's significant. Thanks Dawn.

I haven't seem much of TMWKK, but I believe it pointed various fingers at his main man LBJ.

[Mark Stapleton]

As far as I'm aware, the media in general and the media bosses in particular have recieved scant focus for their role in the crime of the century. The media has been the driving force behind the 43 year cover-up and they have occupied the enviable position of largely determining what the US public have been permitted to see and hear.

FWIW, I think your suspicions are on the money, Myra.

Spot on Mark.

IMO, FWIW, tracking hte people who spun obvious lies - many of whom were media folk - is the route to determining who was behind the assassination. I'd make the same claim in relation to 9/11.

I agree Sid.

Who CONTROLLED the media in 1963 is a question which should be examined by serious JFK researchers, imo.

Who ran the media at that time? Why did they all behave as a single unit in endorsing and failing to critically analyse the WC? What was their motive for maintaining the cover-up? What is the connection between the JFK-era media and today's media? Why does today's media maintain the facade?

Actually, it should be easier to identify those controlling the media in 1963---before the era of media conglomerates---than those who control it today.

[Sid Walker]

I received this email from Gary Mack and post it here with his permission:

Sid,

CNN's information was wrong. Valenti had nothing to do with the PR aspects of the Dallas visit. Those details were handled by the Sam Bloom advertising agency of Dallas, which was run by its founder, Sam Bloom. Bloom was a personal friend and strong supporter of JFK and he served on the Dallas Citizens Council, which was one of the three civic groups who sponsored the Trade Mart luncheon. Here's more on Bloom: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online...s/BB/fblvh.html

Gary Mack

[Sid Walker]

I received this email from Gary Mack and post it here with his permission:

Sid,

CNN's information was wrong. Valenti had nothing to do with the PR aspects of the Dallas visit. Those details were handled by the Sam Bloom advertising agency of Dallas, which was run by its founder, Sam Bloom. Bloom was a personal friend and strong supporter of JFK and he served on the Dallas Citizens Council, which was one of the three civic groups who sponsored the Trade Mart luncheon. Here's more on Bloom: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online...s/BB/fblvh.html

Gary Mack

It seems to me that if Gary is right about this, a number of new questions arise.

How (or why) did CNN get this story so wrong?

What was Jack Valenti's actual role at the time, before and after the assasination?

What is documented about the role played by the Bloom agency?

Edited March 29, 2007 by Sid Walker

[Mark Wilson]

I received this email from Gary Mack and post it here with his permission:

Sid,

CNN's information was wrong. Valenti had nothing to do with the PR aspects of the Dallas visit. Those details were handled by the Sam Bloom advertising agency of Dallas, which was run by its founder, Sam Bloom. Bloom was a personal friend and strong supporter of JFK and he served on the Dallas Citizens Council, which was one of the three civic groups who sponsored the Trade Mart luncheon. Here's more on Bloom: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online...s/BB/fblvh.html

Gary Mack

It seems to me that if Gary is right about this, a number of new questions arise.

How (or why) did CNN get this story so wrong?

What was Jack Valenti's actual role at the time, before and after the assasination?

What is documented about the role played by the Bloom agency?

Hi Sid.There is a short essay in Michael Collins Piper's 6th edition of Final Judgement entitled,maybe a thousand words,The Myth of Dallas:New Revelations.The information included in the essay is said to have arrived to Piper when the 6th edition was to go to press therefore it was an add on.Piper says it was sent anonymously and included 115 footnotes,some of which rely on the mainstream media...in a nutshell the documents attempt to prove that Dallas had a very powerful Jewish community in contrast to " a clique of anti semitic White Anglo-Saxon oil plutocrats"(quote)....The document states that the Citizen Council was the sponsor of the Dallas trip and that Sam Bloom was the long time executive director of the CC.Bloom is described ,"the chairman was Dallas Jewish leader and public relations man,Sam Bloom,the CC's longtime executive director and in retrospect one of the least known but most pivotal figures in world history."

Edited March 30, 2007 by Mark Wilson

[Nathaniel Heidenheimer]

I agree, this is a very interesting find, Myra.

First we get Valenti protesting too much by helping destroy TMWKK.

Now we get Gary Mack claiming that CNN was wrong. He may be right, but did he say anything about what Valenti was doing that day? Is he trying to broaden the discussion of Valenti, or trying to dismiss it?

These are two highly connected people who are bound up in the extension of the Lone Nut theory, and both of them are taking an active interest in this matter.

Your pointing out of Valenti's dual role on 11/22/63 -- that is if he had an officially defined role for the Kennedy visit-- is particularly interesting for me because I read the book Covering the Body, which is about press coverage 11/22 by a journalism professor. WHAT REALLY STANDS OUT FROM THIS BOOK WAS JUST FEW PEOPLE'S VERSION OF EVENTS BECAME SOCIALIZED INTO A COLLECTIVE NARRATIVE FOR THE ENTIRE PRESS.

See especially the fascinating descriptions, of the telephone wrestling match on the Merriman Smith thread. Also see the media management going on between johnson and Malcolm Kilduff:

Without in anyway highlighting it, Zelizer has thus described two situtions in which one reporters narrative

is thus structurally ( and in perhaps a premeditaded manner?) transformed into a proclamation to busloads

of reporters

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...&hl=Zelizer

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...13&hl=smith

Please read these threads! I'll give you a quarter.

Some have criticized Zelizer for wrtiting in a pretentious, theoretical manner typical of early 1990s social theory in which every third word had to be "discourse" or you woul lose tenure. I think this pretentous academic jargon may have served a usefull purpose. This purpose was in turning off the general reader. What Zelizer says in Covering the Body is, in my opinion earthshaking; this is not because of what it says but rather who is saying it. Zelizer was a professor of Communications at Temple, when the book came out. Read patiently, it is a devastating and INSTITUTIONAL critique of how the media became wedded to the lone nut theory, because it had become the liferaft, the halfshell on which an infant TV news was delivered.

What made it more interesting to me was what happened afterwards. Zelizer then moves on to the most presitigous journalism school in the US, the Annenberg Center. I was not in the least surprised when Jack informed me that the CIA has a stable or two in this plushest of media mangers.

Now why would the author of a book that is so devastating to the Corporate Media's Lone Nut theory (but who writes in such a manner as to be only followed by professionals, thus without worry of a wider audience) be offered a job here?

Knowing what Velenti was doing before the shots, might be usefull in terms of undersanding a broader media strategy that LBJ might have been orchastrating that day.

Edited March 30, 2007 by Nathaniel Heidenheimer

[Mark Stapleton]

I received this email from Gary Mack and post it here with his permission:

Sid,

CNN's information was wrong. Valenti had nothing to do with the PR aspects of the Dallas visit. Those details were handled by the Sam Bloom advertising agency of Dallas, which was run by its founder, Sam Bloom. Bloom was a personal friend and strong supporter of JFK and he served on the Dallas Citizens Council, which was one of the three civic groups who sponsored the Trade Mart luncheon. Here's more on Bloom: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online...s/BB/fblvh.html

Gary Mack

It seems to me that if Gary is right about this, a number of new questions arise.

How (or why) did CNN get this story so wrong?

What was Jack Valenti's actual role at the time, before and after the assasination?

What is documented about the role played by the Bloom agency?

Does Gary have evidence to support the claim that the Bloom agency handled the Dallas trip? The link provided no such evidence, just a brief bio of Bloom.

Who has their facts straight, CNN or Gary Mack? Mainstream media or gatekeeper for a museum dedicated to the maintenance of a lie.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter. What matters more is discovering facts about the backgrounds and connections of the people who controlled mainstream American media in 1963.

[Jack White]

I received this email from Gary Mack and post it here with his permission:

Sid,

CNN's information was wrong. Valenti had nothing to do with the PR aspects of the Dallas visit. Those details were handled by the Sam Bloom advertising agency of Dallas, which was run by its founder, Sam Bloom. Bloom was a personal friend and strong supporter of JFK and he served on the Dallas Citizens Council, which was one of the three civic groups who sponsored the Trade Mart luncheon. Here's more on Bloom: http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online...s/BB/fblvh.html

Gary Mack

It seems to me that if Gary is right about this, a number of new questions arise.

How (or why) did CNN get this story so wrong?

What was Jack Valenti's actual role at the time, before and after the assasination?

What is documented about the role played by the Bloom agency?

Does Gary have evidence to support the claim that the Bloom agency handled the Dallas trip? The link provided no such evidence, just a brief bio of Bloom.

Who has their facts straight, CNN or Gary Mack? Mainstream media or gatekeeper for a museum dedicated to the maintenance of a lie.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter. What matters more is discovering facts about the backgrounds and connections of the people who controlled mainstream American media in 1963.

I answered this thread this afternoon, but my reply never got posted, apparently.

Trying again.

1. The fact that the Bloom Agency worked Dallas does not preclude Valenti's Agency

being in charge for the whole Texas trip. Agencies (I worked for one) would generally

sublet part of the work on a trip like this to agencies in Dallas and San Antonio

rather than move large staffs from city to city. So my guess is that Valenti was

the overall trip agency and covered Houston, with Bloom handling DFW only.

2. Re control of the media, see THE TAKING OF AMERICA 1-2-3 by Sprague,

and THE COMPANY THAT BOUGHT THE BOARDWALK by Mahon.

Jack

(Sprague's book is available free online by Googling.)

Edited March 30, 2007 by Jack White