Children’s TV Proposal Loses Key Supporter at FCC

The Clinton Administration’s bid to burnish its “family values” image by taking on the TV industry on behalf of parents suffered a setback Wednesday as a key Democrat withdrew his support for a plan that would require broadcasters to air three hours of children’s programming each week.

Federal Communications Commissioner James H. Quello, who less than a month ago appeared to end a long standoff over the issue by saying he would support requiring educational programming for children, said Wednesday that he has changed his mind after reading a final FCC proposal.

Quello, a Democrat appointed by President Nixon in 1974, said an agency plan that is supported by two of the agency’s four commissioners--Chairman Reed E. Hundt and Susan Ness--would over-regulate the broadcast industry and “put them in a straitjacket.”

The about-face--which comes as the nation’s broadcasters and entertainment executives prepare for a July 29 White House summit on improving television programming--was a setback for President Clinton, who last year took the unusual step of writing the FCC in support of the rule, and for Hundt.

“This is a sad day for kids,” said Hundt, who vowed that he would not back down on the three-hour-a-week requirement. But broadcasters said Hundt had sabotaged his own proposal by making the criteria on what qualifies as children’s educational programming too rigid.

White House officials said Wednesday that they had expected the children’s TV issue to be behind them and that they were preparing to focus on other programming issues at the summit.

“The president and the vice president have strongly supported the three-hour rule,” said Gregg Simon, a White House domestic policy advisor. “If Mr. Quello is walking away from that, we would be very disappointed.

“If this is still in contention when the summit starts, the president and the vice president will be very forceful in advocating this rule change,” Simon added. “This is the best opportunity in two decades to put children back at the top of the public agenda, and we are not inclined” to squander the opportunity, Simon said.

Political observers say advocacy of greater educational programming for children is an important component of Clinton’s reelection strategy of raising so-called family value issues.

On Capitol Hill, a key lawmaker was quick to join the White House in expressing disappointment with Quello, who has long championed the interests of broadcasters before the FCC.

“A majority of the members of Congress have urged the FCC to adopt a rule even stronger than the proposed processing guideline; it is time to stop playing hide-and-go-seek with the future of our children,” said Rep. Edward Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who is the ranking minority member of the House telecommunications subcommittee.

But Quello was supported at the FCC by Commissioner Rachelle Chong, a Republican appointed by Clinton.

“Commissioner Chong shares the concern that the plan is too regulatory,” said an aide to Chong, noting that the staff proposal on children’s TV is more than 100 pages long.

“But we’ve been talking at the staff level and we are hopeful that the problems can be resolved,” the aide said.