Lawmakers, Groups Blast TV Rating Plan

The television industry’s new system of rating television shows came under blistering attack from two directions--members of Congress and a coalition of children’s advocacy groups--in comments directed to the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday.

Commenting on whether the industry’s age-based rating approach is what Congress intended when it enacted last year’s law deregulating the telecommunications industry, 16 House members and seven senators said in a letter that the system falls short because it provides parents with too little information about program content.

The elected officials, all of whom played substantial roles in passing the law that led to the TV ratings, called on the FCC to withhold approval of the system.

“The TV industry has taken a four-month detour with an age-based system that doesn’t do what Congress, and parents, want them to do,” Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said in an interview Tuesday. Industry executives “will get away with this if they can, but the FCC should not approve such a fraudulent system.”

The congressional criticism was echoed by a coalition of 20 groups, including the National Parent-Teacher Assns., the American Psychological Assn., the National Assn. of Elementary School Principals, the Children’s Defense Fund and the National Council of La Raza.

Tuesday was the deadline for public comment on the rating system before the FCC makes a judgment on it. The agency has not indicated when it will issue its ruling.

In a speech at the National Assn. of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas on Monday, Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America and the chief architect of the rating system, said such critics are a minority.

Times staff writer Brian Lowry contributed to this story from Las Vegas.