TV Ratings Architect Vows to Fight Federal Intervention

Faced with a threat from Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) to introduce legislation requiring a content-based TV ratings system, the television industry’s chief ratings architect vowed Thursday to go to court to fight any government intervention in its age-based code.

“This system was supposed to be voluntary,” Jack Valenti told reporters in declaring that the TV industry would not accept a system different from what his implementation committee plans to unveil next week.

Referring to Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who joined Lieberman in strongly criticizing the TV industry’s system Thursday, Valenti said, “Ed Markey wants the government to be Big Brother . . . and have us do what he wants us to do. If Congressman Markey leads the troops on the White House floor to pass any legislation that we believe torments the 1st Amendment, we’ll see him in court.”

Valenti also dismissed suggestions from industry critics that the Federal Communications Commission, which must give its approval to the ratings system, could reject the industry’s plan and impose one of its own.

“If the FCC says that what we present is unsuitable, we’re under no obligation to use any other design,” he said. “We will not use any other TV ratings guidelines except the ones that we are going to announce next week.”

Valenti’s meeting with reporters was called to defend the industry’s approach to its ratings code, which has become the subject of controversy since word leaked that it would classify programs in a system modeled on the one used by the Motion Picture Assn. of America for movies. Categories such as TV-G (general audiences), TV-PG (parental guidance suggested) and TV-14 (may be inappropriate for children under 14) would provide broad guidelines as to the amount of sex, violence or foul language a program contained. Valenti declined to provide further details.

Lieberman and Markey joined children’s TV advocates, parents’ groups and others at a separate news conference here Thursday to present an open letter to Valenti calling for a system that would give parents much more specific information about the content of every entertainment program.

“The TV industry is still in a state of denial about the impact of what they’re putting on TV,” Lieberman said. “Parents are hungry for information about television.”

Markey charged that the TV industry is excluding parents from the process of creating ratings. “They don’t want V-for-violence ratings because they fear that would be a Scarlet Letter for advertisers,” he said.

Valenti defended the industry’s system, saying that “it combines age-appropriateness and content information” in a way that will be easy for parents to use and understand. A system that individually reports levels of sex, language and violence in each program, such as one that has been tested in Canada, would be difficult to distribute and hard to quantify, he argued.

The TV industry plans to release a survey next week, Valenti said, that shows many parents like its system.

The industry agreed to devise ratings standards after Congress passed legislation early this year calling on the FCC to create a system if TV executives did not come up with one on their own. It also required TV sets sold in 1998 to be equipped with an electronic device, the so-called V-chip, that parents can use to block programs carrying a rating they consider inappropriate for their children.

Lieberman and Markey said they hope television executives might still be persuaded to change their minds about how much information to provide about each program. But if they don’t, Lieberman said he “would not exclude the possibility of going back to some of my colleagues with a proposal” that says the TV industry “must add content information.”

And Markey called on the FCC to mandate that the V-chip technology be able to accommodate a system that rates shows separately according to sex, language and violence. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) issued a similar statement Thursday.

Meanwhile, Nancy Ives, a spokeswoman for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the incoming chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said hearings are likely to be held on the television rating systems in February or March.

McCain has not expressed an opinion about favoring one system or another. “He feels he has to have the facts presented in the hearings,” Ives said. “He’s going to remain neutral until then.”

At the White House, Vice President Al Gore’s staff has been involved in discussions with congressional and industry leaders concerning the TV ratings system, sources said.

Valenti, who also is chairman of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, said that to support the introduction of its ratings system, the TV industry plans to distribute 1 million brochures describing how it works. The ratings will be displayed on the air and in television listings guides, he said.

Valenti also disclosed that a 19-member board will be established to resolve disputes over the ratings. But the appeals board will consist entirely of people who work in television, rather than including any parents from the outside, as the MPAA uses with its movie ratings.

Times staff writer Sam Fulwood III contributed to this report.