Gore Outflanks Bush in Pursuit of Swing Votes

In his aggressive response to the federal investigation of entertainment industry marketing practices, Al Gore seized a rare opportunity Monday to move to George W. Bush’s right on an issue with potentially broad appeal to swing voters who could decide the presidential election.

Both Gore and running mate Joseph I. Lieberman warned they would seek new federal authority to regulate the marketing of violent entertainment to young people if Hollywood, the recording industry and video-game manufacturers did not voluntarily do so themselves. That placed the Democratic ticket in the unusual position of brandishing a bigger stick at Hollywood than Bush, who suggested Monday that his priority would be voluntary negotiations with the industry.

Bush and other Republicans immediately accused Gore of hypocrisy in his hard line, pointing to the Democratic Party’s heavy reliance on Hollywood donors. But even some Republicans said Gore’s call for an assertive Washington response to the findings of the Federal Trade Commission report shows how Democrats have scrambled the political debate over values.

With his threat of new federal oversight of Hollywood marketing, Gore is following the pattern that President Clinton established through his advocacy of such measures as the V-chip and the voluntary rating system for television: the use of activist government for culturally conservative ends.

“Gore is offering something tangible and I’m sure the Bush people are in a bit of a quandary,” said Pete Wehner, policy director at Empower America, a conservative think tank. “They aren’t sure whether they want to match what Gore wants to do.”

The FTC study marked a continued escalation in Washington’s criticism of sex and violence in entertainment--a focus that has established deep roots in both parties as concern has deepened about the influence of popular culture on children. Probably not since Congress investigated the presence of Communists in the film industry during the blacklist era in the late 1940s and 1950s has Hollywood been as much a political target as it has during the last few years. The sharp comments from Gore, and even the milder echo from Bush, suggest that the pressure isn’t likely to let up any time soon.

For Gore, the issue of Hollywood violence could offer a window to reach culturally conservative middle-class parents now fiercely contested by both campaigns.

In 1996, the administration’s support for the V-chip--a mechanism that allows parents to block their children from watching explicit material on television--and the voluntary rating system were part of “the tools for parents” agenda Clinton used in his reelection campaign to court suburban families, especially married women. Gore appears to have his eyes on the same voters: Though the vice president has erased Bush’s earlier lead among married women overall, the Republican still holds a double-digit advantage among women who remain at home with children, according to the latest Gallup/CNN/USA Today survey.

“This issue allows you to have a dialogue with parents about something they care a lot about,” says Los Angeles-based Democratic consultant Bill Carrick.

In its long-awaited report, the FTC accused the film, recording and video-game industries of undermining their own rating systems by routinely marketing to young people violent products ostensibly meant for adults.

In a series of interviews and statements Monday, Gore emphatically endorsed the study and said he would pursue a three-step response. First, Gore said the entertainment industry should offer “an immediate cease-fire” by curtailing all marketing of violent products toward young people.

Second, Gore said as president he would give the industry’s various components six months to follow the FTC recommendation that they adopt voluntary codes of conduct banning such marketing, as well as provide parents with more information about existing rating systems and more stringently enforce current restrictions designed to keep explicit video games, music and movies off limits to children.

If such actions do not occur, Gore said, he would ask the FTC to restrict entertainment-industry marketing practices under the government’s authority to regulate “false and deceptive advertising.” If the FTC’s existing authority did not provide such power, Gore said he would seek legislation explicitly granting it to the agency.

“If [entertainment companies] are saying to parents in one breath, ‘We’re going to work with you, we’re going to protect children,’ and then behind the scenes they’re advertising directly to children to attract them to the material they’re not ready to handle, that is false and deceptive as an advertising strategy,” Gore said at an elementary school in Belleville, Ill.

Bush’s response to the study was more temperate. That fits a long pattern, reflecting his desire to be “a uniter, not a divider,” the Texas governor has been much less publicly critical of Hollywood than most other leading Republicans, such as 1996 GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole.

When Bush spoke to a Hollywood group in June 1999, he even suggested that Clinton had been overly harsh in public comments the president made criticizing the industry after the shooting rampage two months earlier at Columbine High School in Colorado.

Bush struck a similar tone when asked about the FTC report Monday. He criticized the level of violence in popular culture but downplayed the possibility of new federal regulation and stressed the responsibilities of parents as much as the entertainment industry.

“I will absolutely work with the CEOs of Hollywood, those who produce products that oftentimes pollute our children’s minds,” Bush said at a campaign stop in St. Petersburg, Fla. “But I’m going to remind moms and dads, their biggest responsibility is to make sure their children are not watching and/or playing with these violent games.”

Bush devoted much of his response Monday to questioning Gore’s commitment to the issue. His aides cited a 1999 Times story reporting that Gore told industry executives in a private meeting that Clinton, not he, had ordered the study. Other Republicans, such as former Education Secretary William J. Bennett, noted that in his 1988 presidential campaign Gore likewise appeared to distance himself from his wife Tipper’s campaign against explicit music lyrics.

And GOP leaders pointed to Gore’s copious fund-raising in the entertainment industry, which will continue with three fund-raisers this week headlined by assorted celebrities. Overall, Gore and Democratic Party committees and candidates have raised more than $13.6 million from the entertainment industry in this election cycle, compared with the Republicans’ $8.6 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

“I think the man’s short on credibility on the issue,” Bush said.

Chris Lehane, Gore’s spokesman, said Monday that the Times’ account of Gore’s 1999 meeting with industry supporters was “factually accurate” but irrelevant. “He did not ask for the FTC report,” Lehane said, “but clearly he responded [Monday] to the compelling information that was presented in the report.”

Some Republicans worry that, whatever Gore’s history on the issue, he has stolen it from Bush now. Wehner of Empower America echoed the GOP charge that Gore’s commitment to the issue has wavered, but he warned that Bush was making a “mistake” by allowing the Democratic ticket to identify more emphatically with the cause of cleansing popular entertainment.

“I think it’s a good idea for George W. Bush to remind people why voters used to think Republicans were better on this issue,” Wehner said. “I think allowing Gore and Lieberman [alone] to give voice to those concerns is a mistake.”

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Highlights From the Report

Excerpts from the 104-page Federal Trade Commission report on violence in the media:

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GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

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“The motion picture, music recording, and electronic game industries should stop targeting children under 17 in their marketing of products with violent content.”

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“The practice of pervasive and aggressive marketing of violent movies, music and electronic games to children undermines the credibility of the industries’ ratings and labels. Such marketing also frustrates parents’ attempts to make informed decisions about their children’s exposure to violent content.”

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“The commission emphasizes that its review and publication of this report, and its proposals to improve self-regulation, are not designed to regulate or even influence the content of movies, music lyrics or electronic games.”

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MOVIES: R-rated films target children under 17

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“Of the 44 movies rated R for violence the commission selected for its study, the commission found that 35, or 80%, were targeted to children under 17.”

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“The commission found numerous examples when trailers approved for ‘all audiences’ contained material that the Advertising Administration’s landbook says might engender criticism by parents.”

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“An undercover shopper survey of 395 theaters conducted for the commission in May through July 2000 found that just over half of the theaters enforced the age restrictions at the box office.”

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MUSIC: Retail stores don’t monitor sales

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“The undercover shopper study . . . confirms that retail stores rarely restrict children from purchasing explicit-labeled music.”

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“Of the 55 music recordings with explicit content labels the commission selected for its study, marketing plans for 15, or 27%, expressly identified teenagers as part of their target audience.”

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GAMES: 70% of ‘mature’ titles aimed at younger teens

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“Of 118 electronic games with a mature rating for violence the commission selected for its study, 83, or 70%, targeted children under 17. The marketing plans for 60 of these, or 51%, expressly included children under 17 in their target audience.”

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