SPEECH: "DON'T BE A SCENE STEALER" Jack Valenti* Thank you, Marin, for that introduction. A little that this is the most filibustering preacher in brief, but that's all right. And I thank all of you for south Texas. I mean he could talk for four or five being here. Why? For you bright people to be sit- hours and never have to go to the bathroom. So, ting in a classroom at 3:45 on a beautiful day like he took out a big pocket watch and put it right in this tells me that you need medical attention, all front of him, and my young friend, we were both of you. Believe me. ten years old, he tugged his daddy's sleeve and The first thing I am going to do is start my stop- said, "Daddy, what does it mean when the watch. But I want to tell you a story about the stop- preacher pulls out that watch?" watch. I grew up in Houston, Texas, the grandson His daddy leaned down and whispered, "Son, of Sicilian immigrants. Catholic, in a part of not a goddamned thing." So, I just started my Texas, the Bible belt, where there were very few stopwatch. You can take it from there. Catholics, and as you might imagine, damn fewer By the way, I hope there is in this classroom a Sicilians, I'll tell you that. So, I'd go to seven young woman who is very valuable to us at the Mo- o'clock mass every Sunday morning, with my fam- tion Picture Association - she's serving as a legal ily. Then about ten o'clock I would join my bud- intern, Loretta Dennison. Are you here, Loretta? dies, Protestants, with their father usually, the Where are you? Good. Good to see you. Delighted mother would go to what is known in Texas as a to see you. We are glad to have you down there. If brush arbor revival. A brush arbor revival is, you she's an example of the smart people you turn out get a big tent, and put it over this parched, thirsty, here, Dean,** I congratulate you. hard slate, Texas earth and you put about 500 Let me talk to you a few minutes about some folding chairs in there, and then you have a things I feel very passionate about. Indeed, I've preacher mount the pulpit and kick the devil for been, as the dean and I have talked, on a kind of a about another couple of hours, right in the back- travel crusade. I have been to Duke, NYU, Ge- side until he is pretty limp. So, the devil, not the orgetown, last Tuesday I was at Stanford. I intend preacher. And so one morning, a Sunday morn- to go to Yale, Harvard, the University of Texas, ing, the preacher mounts the "rockety" pulpit, and even my own school, where I went to school and it turns out, according to my young friend, * Texas born, Harvard educated,Jack Valenti has led sev- Air Force One flying back to Washington with the new Presi- eral lives: a wartime bomber pilot, advertising agency dent as the first newly hired Special Assistant to the Presi- founder, political consultant, White House Special Assistant, dent. OnJune 1, 1966, Valenti resigned his White House post movie industry leader. In his current role as Chairman and to become the third man in MPAA's history (founded in Chief Executive Officer of the Motion Picture Association of 1922) to become its leader. America ("MPAA"), Valenti has presided over and led the In addition to having authored four books, Valenti main- American film and television industry as it has confronted a tains a rigorous public speaking schedule and writes exten- sea of change in the landscape of the industry, both in the sively for America's preeminent newspapers and magazines. United States and abroad. He has a B.A. from the University At the invitation of Professor Main Scordato, Director of the of Houston and a M.B.A. from Harvard. In 1952, he co- Communications Law Institute of the Columbus School of founded the advertising/political consulting agency of Week- Law at The Catholic University of America, Valenti delivered ley & Valenti. In 1955 he met the man who would have the this speech in the Byron Auditorium in Washington, D.C. on largest impact on his life, Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. March 14, 2003. Johnson. Valenti's agency was in charge of the press during ** Referring to Douglas W. Kmiec, former Dean and St. the visit of President Kennedy and Vice President Johnson to Thomas More Professor of Law of the Catholic University of Texas. Valenti was in the motorcade (six cars back of the America Columbus School of Law from July 2001 through President) in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Within an hour July 2003. of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Valenti was aboard COMMLAW CONSPECTUS [Vol. 11 at night-I got all of my college at night-the great American dream. But when reality, the University of Houston. I'll be down there as well. brute reality intrudes on these people that say, Next week, however, I am taking time off. I'm "You know what, these guys got it through trick- heading to Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, to ery, and through duplicity, lying and stealing," be there for the Academy Awards. If you tune in, I then that makes people feel that they've been think you're going to see me on the show, doing had. And, I tell you, I feel very strongly about that. something, I'm not yet sure yet. So, I think that we have no larger objective in this country than the reassembling of civic trust. And At any rate, I have often believed that no free just in corporate executives, but in the gov- country can lay claim to greatness unless it con- not ernment, and in the community - the reassem- structs a rostrum from which will spring, what I trust is one of the things we're going would call a moral compact, a moral imperative. bling of civic to do. The reaffirmation of honorable And this moral imperative applies to every busi- to have are in power, ness, every enterprise, every profession, every uni- conduct, by men and women who versity, every family, and to the government as and it's in politics as well that you see that. well. Now it is illuminated by what William Faulk- Now, someone once said that all movement is ner - I'm sure all of you have read Faulkner, and not necessarily forward, and all change is not nec- if you haven't, you should - what William Faulk- essarily progress. So the digital world that we're ner called the "old verities," words like honor and getting into, frankly I don't know if it's going to duty, and service and integrity, pity and pride, be a better world, but it sure as hell is going to be and compassion and sacrifice. different. The difference between digital and ana- Well these are the words that define what this log, in the words of Mark Twain, is the difference free and loving land is all about. Now, if you find between, lightning and the lightning bug. That's these, if you treat these words casually, and when I a big difference. Now, the nation's universities, are say you, I mean you in this audience today. If you like here at Catholic University, I presume, treat them casually, if you think they are not very equipped with state-of-the-art, large pipe, high ve- cool at all, and if you believe that they are mere locity, broadband network systems. None better, playthings, that only the rabble and the rubes and none faster. And those systems produce great ben- the unlearned and the unsophisticated observe efits to the University, allowing for the conveyance and honor, then I promise you, you will bear slow of knowledge, information, data, and reference witness to the very undoing of America's great se- material to move quickly for professors and re- cret. You know, this is a country where we have search experts within the academy. had in the newspaper stories about the un- Now students are also privy to this accessibility bounded avarice of corporate executives who of facts and data, and also, guess what, to movies. broke this moral code, this moral compact, who It's an "open sesame" opportunity for young stu- knew that they were cheating and stealing from dents. The best and the brightest, head up to their employees and their stockholders, but be- those file swapping sites and bring down movies cause they had the power to do it, and because it for which they do not pay, permission of the was so easy, they did it. As a result, it was a coarse owner they did not seek, and they use it for their and cynical defiance of this moral compact. And own personal use. And then on the file swapping the disclosure of all this fiscal perfidy, I think sites, of course, it goes to millions and millions of caused a lot of people to really think hard and sites. When you go on Kazaa, by the way, how long, about the lack of a moral reference within many of you have been on Kazaa, Morpheus or the minds and hearts of these corporate execu- Gnutella? Now be honest with me, don't give me tives.