Clinton Supports Industry On TV Ratings Proposal

Siding with the television industry in a heated controversy over television ratings, President Clinton urged American parents Friday to give a pending industry plan a fair trial before fighting to change it.

“Give it 10 months to work,” Clinton said in a nationally televised news conference. “The parents in the country ought to look at these ratings . . . and then, if they’re inadequate or there needs to be some more content in the rating systems, then after a 10-month test period we’ll be able to make that argument.”

Clinton’s remarks clearly favor the position taken by industry officials, who have designed age-based classifications that resemble the existing movie rating system and came as a blow to advocates fighting for a content-based rating system.

“The president’s statement is all that we want anyone to say,” said Jack Valenti, president and CEO of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, Inc. “Now all that we ask is the one group in America this system is dedicated to--parents--be given a chance to offer their judgment as to whether the system is useful.”

But officials at the Federal Communications Commission, an independent agency that has authority to review the ratings, expressed disappointment Friday with the description of the plan they had seen in the press. “I hope the TV industry doesn’t make the mistake that approval is a foregone conclusion,” said one FCC official who refused to be identified.

“I know some people are concerned” about what they have read, the official said. “It appears that under their ratings system, 90% of TV programs would receive the same rating.” That’s not adequate, the official said.

The president’s endorsement of the industry plan was alarming to some children’s television advocates and members of Congress, who strongly favor a content-based TV rating system that would give parents more-specific information about the sex, violence or foul language found in every entertainment program.

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“Parents have reviewed Hollywood’s age-based system and given it two thumbs down,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.). “Now is the time for their voices to be heard.”

Markey, one of several members of Congress who have spoken out against the industry’s design, said he has requested a meeting with the president to try to change his mind.

“We should not spend 10 months trying out a system that child psychologists, pediatricians, religious leaders and educators agree is seriously flawed,” Markey said.

Earlier this week the battle between the two sides reached a boiling point. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) threatened to introduce legislation requiring a content-based system. But Valenti, the chief architect of the industry’s proposal, countered that he would file a 1st Amendment lawsuit to keep the government from intervening, which would likely stall the introduction of the system.

The president was clearly trying to calm the opponents and ensure that the controversy does not delay the introduction of the rating system.

“Let’s remember how far we’ve come,” Clinton said. “This has been debated for 10 years.”

Although Clinton pressured the industry to create the television rating system, he consistently stressed Friday that the effort was “voluntary.”

“I feel very strongly the government should not do this,” Clinton said. “This must be an industry-based thing.”

The children’s television issue is a politically complicated one for the president. On one hand, the entertainment industry has been supportive--financially and otherwise--to the president. On the other, Clinton’s advisors conceded that the president had benefited on election day from his efforts during the last two years to use his bully pulpit to denounce sex and violence in television and call for more educational programming.

Before Clinton made his comments Friday, the White House had listened to representatives on all sides, including heavy lobbying recently from the television industry, according to senior White House officials and industry sources.

The entertainment industry agreed to design the rating system in February, after Clinton summoned representatives of every major production studio, cable company and broadcast television network to the White House.

Industry officials expect to officially unveil the plan they have devised to meet that commitment on Thursday.

According to sources on the industry committee, it would use classifications similar to those familiar to movie-goers, such as TV-G (general audiences), TV-PG (parental guidance suggested), TV-14 (may be inappropriate for children under 14) but would not specify whether the show got its rating because of sex, violence or foul language.

After broadcasters announce their plan Thursday, the spotlight will shift to the FCC. FCC Chairman Reed E. Hundt has said he plans to solicit public comment on the ratings proposal.

A landmark telecommunications bill passed by Congress in February gives the FCC the authority to review the ratings plan to see if it would inform parents adequately about video programming that contains sexual, violent or other indecent material.

If the broadcasting industry has not devised guidelines acceptable to the commission by Feb. 8, 1997, the FCC could construct its own ratings system.

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In addition, television set manufacturers, by February 1998, must begin producing TV sets containing “V-chips,” electronic devices that will enable parents to block out any programming with rating codes they believe are not suitable for their children.

Although Clinton expressed optimism about the television industry’s efforts to develop a rating system, Hundt was more critical.

“I am frankly disappointed that it is not immediately playing to rave reviews,” Hundt said in a press conference at his agency. “The early critical remarks are significant,” Hundt added.

For now, he said, he is reserving final judgment.

“This is a case where I haven’t seen the movie and I haven’t even seen the previews,” Hundt said.

Times staff writers Jane Hall and Jube Shiver contributed to this story.