Congress Plans Content-Based TV Ratings

Dissatisfied with the television industry’s age-based ratings system, several members of Congress said that they will introduce legislation that would effectively force the TV networks to provide content-based TV ratings.

Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) plans to introduce a bill in the Senate today that would require the major networks, cable stations and syndicators of programs either to label shows for violence or move them to “safe harbor” hours when children are less likely to be watching.

And in the House today, conservative Rep. Tom A. Coburn (R-Okla.) will team up with liberal Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), one of the leading critics of the industry’s ratings system, to introduce similar legislation.

Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II (D-Mass.) plans to introduce a bill Thursday that would establish a toll-free telephone number at the Federal Communications Commission to track parents’ concerns about the TV industry’s system.

Other members of Congress are considering introducing legislation that would mandate content-based TV ratings, sources said.

Coburn added heat to the debate Tuesday by denouncing NBC’s Sunday airing of “Schindler’s List”, the Academy Award-winning film about the holocaust. The broadcast carried a TV-M rating, signaling that it was intended for adults, but Coburn called that simply a shield to allow the network to air “multiple gunshot head wounds, vile language, full frontal nudity and irresponsible sexual activity.”

NBC West Coast President Don Ohlmeyer defended the broadcast Tuesday and said Coburn’s statement “should send a chill through every intelligent and fair-minded person in America. This is exactly what we find frightening about the ‘helpful hand’ of the government interfering with television programming decisions.”

Coburn’s criticism brought a response from Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, a New York Republican, who told the Senate that Coburn’s statement was “shocking.”

“To equate the nudity of the Holocaust victims in the concentration camp with any sexual connotations is outrageous and offensive,” D’Amato said.

On Thursday, the television industry is likely to face a barrage of criticism at a hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Eight members of Congress plan to testify against the networks’ system, whereas only one, Rep. Sonny Bono (R-Palm Springs), plans to speak in support of the industry’s guidelines.

The networks have been labeling their shows since Jan. 1 with age-based ratings (TV-PG, TV-14 and other categories) that are modeled after ratings used by the movie industry. But critics want the networks to use labels that would rate TV shows according to their sex, violence and foul language.

“The networks keep saying, ‘Give our system a chance to work,’ ” Hollings said. “But their system misses the target entirely. It doesn’t tell you specific information about what’s in the TV shows.”

Under Hollings’ plan, networks and other distributors of TV programming would have to label shows according to levels of violence or else broadcast violent programming during late-evening hours. The FCC would define what constitutes “violent” programming and specify the “safe harbor” hours.

“If the networks provide content-based TV ratings, as they should, the ‘safe harbor’ provisions would not be triggered,” Hollings said.

Hollings introduced a similar bill in Congress last year but it was not linked to TV ratings, and it never made it to the Senate floor.

Hollings’ bill is based on an FCC rule that limits “indecent” programming on television and radio to the hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The indecency provisions have been upheld in court.

The National Assn. of Broadcasters declined to comment on Hollings’ bill. But broadcast-industry executives said that they believe the plan is an unconstitutional infringement of the networks’ right to free speech.

“This bill sounds constitutionally suspect. Is the government now going to decide that we can’t air ‘Schindler’s List’?” asked one entertainment-industry executive.

Still others in the industry expressed concern about the climate of criticism in Congress.

“The TV-ratings system was supposed to be voluntary,” one executive said. “But nobody seems to be remembering that now.”