Educational Children’s TV Shows to Air

Bowing to intense pressure from President Clinton, the nation’s top television executives agreed Monday to air three hours of educational children’s programming each week--a pact that children’s advocates said will bring sweeping changes but critics complained had too many loopholes.

Approval of the three-hour rule marked a major turnabout for the executives of the four major TV networks, who had opposed it for years on 1st Amendment grounds. It also amounted to an important election-year achievement for the president, who announced the pact at his second so-called media summit.

Clinton said that the plan would send a powerful message to America’s parents: “You are not alone. We are all committed to working with you to see that educational programming for your children makes the grade.”

But Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole expressed doubts that the agreement will make any real difference. Saying that Clinton had accepted more than $454,000 in campaign contributions from the entertainment industry, Dole spokesman Nelson Warfield said that Clinton’s participation “makes the entire agreement suspect.”

Children’s television advocates, meanwhile, lavished praise on the president and hailed the agreement as historic.

“This is an extraordinary gift to American families,” said Peggy Charren, who as founder of Action for Children’s Television is considered the grande dame of children’s television advocates. “It’s the beginning of a new day for children’s television in commercial broadcasting.”

The proposal is supposed to give teeth to the Children’s Television Act of 1990, which was intended to promote quality educational programming but had so many loopholes that, one 1992 study found, broadcasters were using cartoons to meet the requirements. One network, for example, claimed “The Jetsons” as educational, for its depiction of life in the future.

Charren and other advocates said that those loopholes now will be closed. “They can’t get away with ‘The Jetsons’ anymore,” said a gleeful Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Media Education, a nonprofit group based here.

The plan now goes to the Federal Communications Commission, where officials said Monday that approval is nearly certain. Some, however, were skeptical of the broadcasters’ promises, saying that the new rule could well follow history’s path.

“The climate right now seems very hopeful,” said Lloyd Morrisett, who chairs the board of the Children’s Television Workshop, which created “Sesame Street.” “But if you look at the history of actions in this area, there is usually a great deal of joy when new rules are made. But the difference between the intent of the rule and the way it is carried out usually leaves enough latitude so that over time, broadcasters who desire not to change what they do, don’t have to.”

In addition, questions are being raised about how to decide what programming is “educational.”

“I hope they do clarify the definition of what is educational--that was something that was raised at the White House,” said Margaret Loesch, president of the Fox Children’s TV Network and a participant in Monday’s meeting, which drew 50 programming executives, activists, actors and others to discuss ways to improve both the quantity and quality of children’s television.

It was the issue of latitude--the broadcasters call it “flexibility”--that had proved a sticking point in reaching an agreement. Reed Hundt, chairman of the FCC, has been pushing for the three-hour rule for two years. In recent months, support for the idea has been growing both in Congress and among the public.

But the broadcasters strongly resisted Hundts’ proposal, complaining that it was an unconstitutional infringement on their right to free speech and would not give them credit for public service announcements and TV specials that were not regularly scheduled but nonetheless could count as educational under the Children’s Television Act.

Late last week, with Monday’s meeting looming, a flurry of negotiations began that ultimately broke the deadlock, according to Edward Fritts, president of the National Assn. of Broadcasters, which helped broker the deal.

The compromise would allow networks to air “somewhat less” than three hours of the so-called core programming--regularly scheduled 30-minute shows--a week, if they also air enough other educational programming to make up the difference. That other programming can include public service announcements, specials and 15-minute shows.

Broadcasters who do not comply with the new requirement would risk losing their licenses. However, the plan would permit the FCC to grant special exceptions to stations that participate in “special nonbroadcast efforts which enhance the value” of educational programming--such as sponsoring community events that educate children or paying for programming aired on another station.

One crucial feature of the rule is that it requires children’s programming to be broadcast between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.