Clinton Opens Entertainment Violence Inquiry

President Clinton launched a federal inquiry Tuesday into the entertainment industry’s marketing of violent movies, music and video games to children--an unexpected move that stunned and angered Hollywood.

The 18-month, $1-million study by two federal agencies will expedite a similar examination sought by Congress and sets in motion the same sort of sweeping inquiry that helped expose the tobacco industry’s quest for young customers.

“We can no longer ignore the well-documented connection between violence in the media and the effects that it has on children’s behavior,” Clinton said, citing about 300 studies over 30 years that show “a link between sustained exposure--hour after hour, day after day, week after week, year after year--to violent entertainment and violent behavior.”

Clinton’s action authorizes the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to examine whether movie studios, record companies and video game manufacturers violate their voluntary rating systems by labeling some products as unsuitable for children and then marketing those products to them.

The president was careful not to affix the harsher term of “investigation” to what he termed a study. But for all intents that is what it is--an unprecedented federal inquiry by two agencies with the subpoena power to demand internal memorandums, e-mail and other confidential correspondence.

Hollywood reacted strongly to the news. One studio official called the investigation “a witch hunt.” Some accused the president that the industry has so generously supported--most recently at a star-studded fund-raiser last month in Beverly Hills that raised $2 million for the Democratic Party--of laying blame for the recent spate of school violence at Hollywood’s doorstep.

One entertainment industry lobbyist complained that Clinton seemed to be violating the spirit of a White House conference he convened three weeks ago after the high school massacre that took 15 lives in Littleton, Colo. At that private meeting, Clinton urged gun manufacturers, movie makers, record producers and others to avoid assigning blame for such tragedies and instead to join in the search for ways to prevent future ones.

“A month ago,” the lobbyist said, “he has everyone holding hands and says we’ll do great things with initiatives and panels and, before that has a chance to roll over in its crib, he smothers it with this bully pulpit maneuver.”

In entertainment circles, many were outraged by the timing of Tuesday’s Rose Garden announcement--which the White House made known to some insiders late Friday, on the eve of the Memorial Day weekend. That left them with little chance to rally opposition. Entertainment industry lobbyists called the White House asking the president to rethink his plan, to no avail, according to industry and White House sources.

In the wake of the Colorado school shootings, Hollywood has felt itself, distressingly, in the company of controversial industries like gun manufacturers and tobacco firms. And Tuesday’s announcement officially put it there. The investigation is not unlike the one that the FTC pressed against R.J. Reynolds’ Joe Camel, a cartoonish ad character that some critics thought invited children to smoke.

The Senate last month passed a bill, now pending in the House, calling for an investigation of marketing to youth by both the entertainment and gun industries. But Clinton asked that the investigation focus solely on the entertainment community.

Some political analysts wondered why Clinton stepped in at all, offending some of his party’s most generous contributors when Congress was on track to order an investigation anyway. White House officials noted that Clinton’s action will allow the inquiry to begin immediately, whereas the congressional initiative would not begin until Oct. 1--the new fiscal year.

“The FTC was very eager to do this and to focus in particular on whether these [entertainment industry] rating systems are what they say they are, whether the advertising works against the spirit of the rating system,” said one senior White House official.

“We told [Hollywood] and they let us know they weren’t very happy,” the official said. “They’re pretty good at that.”

At the White House ceremony, Clinton minced no words. “We have got to quit fooling around with this. . . . I know this stuff sells, but that doesn’t make it right.”

He blasted video games in particular--sharing the stage with 9-year-old Arthur Sawe of Seattle and applauding the boy’s good judgment for telling his mother about one game’s ad that bragged of being “more fun than shooting your neighbor’s cat.”

Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Interactive Digital Software Assn., a Washington-based trade group, agreed that the ad may have been “over the line.” But he added that dozens of magazines written for game enthusiasts are targeted to those over 18, and that parents are responsible for screening the contents.

“We are looking at ways to see if we as an industry can discourage some of the more gratuitous ads that contain violence,” he said.

The president’s call to action could be just the start. Lawmakers still intend to press for passage of the bill that would give congressional authorization to the investigation--a measure that also would impose several gun-control measures.

The legislation could provide more money for the inquiry and lift some confidentiality requirements--allowing the federal agencies to “name names” in their findings, said Dan Gerstein, spokesman for Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), who helped spearhead the Senate bill.

The point of the inquiry is not to indict Hollywood, the officials stressed, but to help the industry understand the impact of its actions. No criminal charges are being pursued, with the goal being a series of recommendations on reducing children’s exposure to violence.

“It’s not an investigation. It is a study. We want to work with the entertainment industry and the advertising industry to help prevent children from being exposed to violence,” said Justice Department spokesman Brian Steel.

Still, it was clear that Washington means business. FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky, who stood with Clinton at Tuesday’s announcement, said his staff will examine the entertainment companies’ internal marketing records, even if it requires subpoenas to do so.

“I would hope we could talk to these companies and get voluntary compliance. But certainly if we feel that we can’t complete our responsibility here, we’re going to turn to compulsory processes,” Pitofsky said.

Some in Hollywood accused Clinton of exploiting the nation’s anguish over Littleton, blaming the entertainment community for a youth violence problem that is exceedingly complex.

“The president is looking for headlines. He says he’s not pointing fingers, but that is exactly what he’s doing,” said Hilary Rosen, president of the Recording Industry Assn. of America. “In the music industry, we don’t market violence to children. We simply don’t.”

Although it was too early to say whether such anger would translate to a dwindling of campaign contributions to the Democrats, a few yearned for some political fallout.

“This has been a multimillion-dollar punishment of the industry for the sake of another couple of days’ headlines,” one industry source said, predicting retribution. “And I hope it hurts” Democratic Party coffers.

Producer Sean Daniel--whose credits include “The Mummy,” said that studio heads might ultimately feel the impact of Clinton’s actions and cut back on violent content. “There are bound to be some companies that will lose some money” as a result, he said.

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Times staff writers Eric Lichtblau in Washington and Jennifer Oldham, Eric Harrison, Patrick Goldstein and Robert W. Welkos in Los Angeles contributed to this story.