Valenti to Discuss Rating System

Under sharp attack from critics even before its work is finished, the chairman of the group devising a television ratings system will meet with reporters in Washington today to defend the decision to classify programs in age-based categories.

A week before the ratings system is scheduled to be officially unveiled, Jack Valenti, head of the TV industry’s ratings implementation committee, is expected to explain the rationale for the group’s approach and to reveal the ratings that some TV shows would get. He also is considering releasing some focus group research that shows parents like the system.

“We can’t reveal the whole system because the committee hasn’t voted on it yet,” a committee member who requested anonymity said Wednesday. “But we need to do something to get out our side of the story, which is that we think our system is one that will be helpful and welcomed by the parents who are going to use it.”

The implementation committee, representing network, cable and other segments of the industry, has been under fire in recent days from some children’s advocates and lawmakers who say TV ratings won’t be useful unless they give parents specific information about how much sex, violence and foul language a program contains.

Valenti’s committee is basing its system on the one used by the Motion Picture Assn. of America for movies, with proposed categories such as TV-G (general audiences), TV-PG (parental guidance suggested) and TV-14 (may be inappropriate for children under 14).

Indeed, two hours before Valenti’s news conference today, a group of children’s TV advocates, parents groups and legislators will hold a news conference in Washington to present an open letter to Valenti calling for ratings that provide content descriptions.

“There’s a tremendous amount of disinformation out there about what we’re going to do,” another ratings committee member said. “There are children’s TV advocates and others out there saying that we won’t be providing any content information and that everything on broadcast TV will be rated PG. Neither statement is true.”

According to sources on the committee, many daytime soap operas and tabloid talk shows would be rated TV-14. The episode of NBC’s sitcom “Friends” that dealt with two characters fighting over one condom would be rated TV-14, as would some racier episodes of CBS’ “Cybill,” they said.

“Each episode will be rated separately,” one person familiar with the committee’s work said.

The ratings committee is conferring daily on the final categories and definitions. But according to an internal committee document, there will be two categories for programs made specifically for children and four for all other entertainment fare. Newscasts and sports programs would not be rated.

The categories would be defined in a way that reflects content issues--a TV-PG program “may contain infrequent coarse language, limited violence, some suggestive sexual dialogue and situations”--but parents would not know which of those subjects was present in a program.

“Valenti’s group has been meeting with children’s advocates and academics, but the TV committee is not listening,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Media Education, one of the groups that will be represented at today’s news conference with the Children’s Defense Fund and the American Psychological Assn. “They’re developing a system for Hollywood. A parent would never know why a show got a rating, based on the TV industry’s system. We think shows should be rated TV-S [for sex], TV-L [for language] and TV-V [for violence].”

Other groups are joining in criticism of the MPAA-style system. The American Academy of Pediatrics plans to announce its support for a content-based system next week.

“This MPAA-style system is insulting to kids--and parents,” said Dr. Victor Strasburger, a New Mexico pediatrician who serves on the committee that advises the Academy of Pediatrics on communications issues. “Parents need specific information about what’s in a show. Does it contain violence? Does it contain nudity? They don’t need to be told a show isn’t appropriate for 5-year-olds. Hollywood producers aren’t child development specialists. I would think they’d find it easier to say what’s in a show than decide whether it’s right for 7-year-olds.”

Strasburger, whose group represents 50,000 pediatricians, said he favors a system such as one used on many computer games. The self-rated code is a visual thermometer that rates a show according to sex, language and violence.

The continuing criticism of the planned system is likely to spill over to the Federal Communications Commission, which must give its blessing to the industry plan. Valenti and some other broadcast executives have suggested that if the government meddles in what the industry develops voluntarily, they will take the matter to court.