. >> nice, john grisham accepts the harper lee prize for legal fiction. after accepting the award the author speaks about being a lawyer and the role that law place in contemporary fiction with a panel at the national press club in washington, d.c. this is a little over an hour. >> everybody got quite as i guess we can begin. that's my cue. good afternoon. as being at the university of alabama law school i'm pleased today to welcome all of you to the inaugural celebration and presentation of the harper lee prize for legal fiction. harper lee of monroe bill alabama attended our law school in the 1940s and published "to kill a mockingbird" in 1960. the book eliminate them of responsibility of lawyers to fight injustice and empower them to represent the wrongly accused. since its publication "to kill a mockingbird" has influenced generations of college graduates, aspiring to practice law to go to law school. last year on the occasion of books 50th anniversary we contacted harper lee who graciously authorized this award. to on an author whose work best exempli

grisham has written about one legal fiction book a year. nine have been turned into movies and is also written about other diverse subjects such as baseball and aging football quarterback and christmas. mr. grisham's nonfiction book, the innocent man man symbolizes and as i understand it galvanized his commitment to the goal of exonerating the wrongly convicted and he is much above today actively in the innocence project nationally. in 1996, mr. grisham took a break from writing to fulfill a promise he made to represent the family of a railroad rake man who was killed in between two cars. here gives clients a jury award of $683,000 reminds us of some of the best lawyering in his books. it is now my great honor to present the inaugural harper lee prize for legal fiction to john grisham. [applause] [applause] >> thank you, dean randall for this award and thanks also to the university of alabama school of law, to the aba's journal for cosponsoring the award. thanks to harper lee for giving her blessings to what we are doing here today. especia

corporations are legal fictions, my friends. they are legal fictions. do you know it corporation is a person? when texas and georgia start executing corporations. [applause] in fact, in fact -- even then, i am not sure i am going to believe the verdict. you see, a lot of those on the right say the budget deficit is the most important thing we can deal with right now. no. the biggest crisis in america right now, the biggest crisis since the great depression, is not the budget deficit. it is jobs and wages. jobs and wages. jobs and wages. let me tell you the logic, because there is a logic behind what i am saying. the real issue in the out years -- anybody who is concerned about the budget deficit, the real issue years from now is the ratio of the debt to the total economy, debt versus gdp. the only way you get the ratio down is to build the economy. you build jobs. that is step number 1. if you do not do that, the ratio gets worse and worse. before you start cutting or doing anything about the budget deficit, what you need to do first is jobs, wages, and

fictional situation has gotten bigger. now, i guess the question is, i'll start with you, morris, is that a reflection on the legal system, the lawyers who inhabit that or society as a whole that they will accept many things that could happen in fiction and maybe in real life more so than the population might have accepted that being possible 50 or 60 years ago? >> i think, i think it has a lot to do with -- i'm not sure if that's really true. i mean, my favorite books are the iliad and the odyssey, and i don't have to tell you, it's a lot of suspending disbelief -- [laughter] and i still think there hasn't been any books written since then, no disrespect to you and john. you can go back and find all your stories there, and when i recently read cleopatra, that was affirmed. i do think, though, with the advent of reality television and talking heads and with the too many commercials that can make war heros into cowards like we saw the presidential election, if you spend enough money, the truth can be suspended or disbelief. i'm really proud that we have great writers, and in fact, if there was any way to, i think that i wou

intelligence committee is in, too, but wants the obama administration to be transparent about jose legal just fictionling an american without due process. >> i believe there is a good case. imminent threat, beyond our ability to arrest him. the authorization to use military force against al qaeda, he was com police ntd with al qaeda. i think the justice department should release that. oh. >> reporter: in fact, two americans were killed in the u.s. attack. the target, aun wire al awlaki, a mastermind recruiter linked to several plots against the u.s., including the fort hood shootings and samir khan. despite his approval something eats at dick cheney. something president obama said in cairo in 2009 about the u.s. reaction to the 9/11 attacks. >> the fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases it led us to act contrary to our traditions and our ideals. we are taking concrete actions to change court. change course. i have unequivocally denied the use of torture from the united states. >> reporter: causing him to rethink that the bush administration's tactics were un-american. >

legal system. but i think in addition to always have a drink in my hand, in modern fiction, everywhere has a drink in their hand, male and female. but i think they are also just very, very good and frustrated and broken in helpless. i think it goes to a sense that, you know, the legal system isn't respect dated ratified the way it once was. >> i'm going to try to put a positive spin on this. >> that would be helpful. >> over the last 50 years -- actually, i think one of the really good and positive attribute of fiction in the timeframe that we are talking about is an appreciation understanding of the legal system. it is a complex but very critical part of our life in this country. it is the foundation for our democracy. and to have authors who understand the encoded in the context of real-life situation makes it appreciated, but more importantly, it is an educational tool. i find that those who read the book who are not lawyers come away with a much deeper understanding and appreciation of our legal system. and it is pretty good. more so and in many ways we can be critical of it because we expect

legal analyst jeff toobin. i'll get the title right. i promise you. >> that's all right. >> up next, putting the truth test to something said on the campaign trail. is the claim by anita perry fact or fictiona guy named his own price, wants a room tonight for 65 dollars. we don't go lower than 130. big deal, persuade him. is it wise to allow a perishable item to spoil? he asked, why leave a room empty? the additional revenue easily covers operating costs. 65 dollars is better than no dollars. okay. $65 for tonight. you can't argue with a big deal. so if i didn't know better i'd say you're having some sort of big tire sale. yes we are. yeah. how many tires does ford buy every year? over 3 million. you say you can beat any advertised price on tires? correct. anywhere? yes. like this price? yes. riously? yes what about this one? i'll beat it. this one? s we will. right, i only have one more question for you...this one? (laughing) yeah. get $100 rebate when you buy four tires. 100 bucks! only at your ford dealer. 3 million tires. 11 major brands, fiona's kind-of-nice. i don't know why you're not here. jrks. >>> sometimes candidate spouses say the darnest things. >> i suppose i could have staye