New FCC Chief Details Positions

The government should review TV advertising of whiskey and other distilled liquors, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said on his first day on the job Monday. The previous commission deadlocked on the issue in July.

Chairman William Kennard also said the agency should proceed with caution when it comes to the Internet. “I want to be very clear: I don’t want to do anything that is going to squelch this new technology,” he said in an interview.

Noting that the Supreme Court struck down a law aimed at shielding children from sexually explicit online content, Kennard said, “I think it’s a matter for Congress at this point.”

As far as using a V-chip to block objectionable Internet content, Kennard said: “That wouldn’t be my intention. I think the V-chip legislation was pretty clearly directed toward broadcast television, not the Internet.”

The FCC is now writing regulations requiring all TVs to have technology allowing parents to block shows they don’t want children to see.

Of TV liquor commercials, Kennard said: “I have talked to people on both sides of the issue, and not one person has told me that more distilled liquor advertising is a good thing for the country.”

Regulators and lawmakers have been grappling with the issue since the liquor industry decided last year to abandon a decades-old voluntary ban on TV and radio advertising.

“I believe that we ought to have this debate,” Kennard said. “It is too important an issue for America to put it in the closet and say that government can’t do anything about it.”

President Clinton asked the FCC in April to conduct an inquiry into TV liquor ads, but the panel rejected the proposal on a 2-2 vote.

Kennard did not say whether he has the three votes necessary on the five-member panel to move forward on a liquor ad inquiry, but he said he intends over the next few weeks to discuss the matter.

Kennard also did not say what regulatory role, if any, the FCC should have over these ads. “The real question is, is there anything that we in government can do about it?” he said, adding that he is sensitive to the “difficult legal and constitutional problems here.”

In addition to Kennard, three new commissioners joined the FCC Monday: Republicans Harold Furchtgott-Roth and Michael Powell and Democrat Gloria Tristani.

They join holdover Commissioner Susan Ness, a Democrat. Ness and former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt voted in July to move forward on a liquor ad inquiry. The two commissioners who voted against it, James Quello and Rachelle Chong, are no longer on the panel.

Groups fighting alcohol abuse and drunk driving have joined officials from some states to ask the FCC to open an inquiry. The National Assn. of Broadcasters and the liquor industry oppose the idea.