Washington Again Taking on Hollywood

Saying the problem of media violence is “not a partisan issue,” lawmakers will prod President Bush today to actively support legislation that would slap financial penalties on entertainment companies that peddle adult material to children.

The drive to get Bush to speak up comes as Democrats, who gained control of Senate committees this month, are poised to push legislation to restrain Hollywood’s pitch to minors--at least when it comes to sexual and violent material.

In a letter to Bush dated today, four members of Congress led by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), write: “This is something that all of us--Republicans and Democrats, entertainment industry CEOs and parents--should be able to agree on: It is wrong to market adult-rated products to children behind the backs of their parents.”

White House officials, noting they had not yet seen the letter, said Wednesday that Bush “shared the goal” of giving parents the tools to shield children from inappropriate material.

“The president has said before that, like most Americans, he is disturbed by the amount of violence, sexuality and drug abuse in entertainment,” Deputy Press Secretary Scott McClellan said. “Entertainment leaders have to understand that there are consequences for their actions, and the president is not going to hesitate to remind them of that.”

The effort by Lieberman, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and Reps. Tom Osborne (R-Neb.) and Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) to draw Bush into the debate marks the latest shot at Hollywood by culture warriors in Washington.

It also comes on the same day Israel and Osborne plan to introduce legislation allowing federal officials to fine companies that violate their own marketing guidelines up to $11,000 a day.

The bill is identical to legislation introduced earlier this year in the Senate that was immediately denounced as unconstitutional by Hollywood advocates.

Entertainment industry officials urged Bush to reject entreaties by lawmakers to crack down on programming.

“I have no problem with the White House taking a stand,” said Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America. “I hope they’d say we are one of the most important exports and are protected by the 1st Amendment.”

Russell Simmons, co-founder of the Def Jam music label, said, “I hope the president is smarter than that. Otherwise, he’ll go down in history the same way as others who attacked our great cultural icons.”

Bush has not made holding Hollywood accountable a centerpiece of his administration--something Al Gore and Lieberman, his Democratic rivals for the White House, vowed to do in their unsuccessful campaign.

It is a promise Lieberman has taken up from his seat in the Senate.

In April, Lieberman, Kohl and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) introduced the Media Marketing Accountability Act. The bill, along with the House version scheduled to be submitted today, would hold entertainment companies liable for their own voluntary marketing guidelines. Both bills call for civil penalties for deceptive advertising by movie, music and video game companies that target children with advertisements for products with violent, profane or sexual content.

The Senate bill was introduced during the same week the Federal Trade Commission issued a follow-up to last year’s report on the entertainment industry’s marketing practices, It failed at the time to gain either widespread attention or a Republican co-sponsor.

But the Senate changeover this month--after moderate Vermont Republican James M. Jeffords defected from the GOP--may reinvigorate a controversial subject that had cooled off in a Republican-dominated Washington.

As newly installed chairmen of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and Senate Commerce Committee, Lieberman and Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) are expected to hold hearings into the marketing and producing of violent programming.

It is a plot twist many in Hollywood would prefer not to see.

Valenti has warned members of Congress that if they pass Lieberman’s bill, he will advise his members to dismantle the film ratings system he helped create a generation back.

Valenti said the bill would give him no choice because it would effectively use those voluntary ratings against the studios

“It immunizes producers who spurn the rating system and penalizes the producer who does rate his film and does give parents the information to make informed decisions,” Valenti said. “That’s a terrible contradiction.”

Last year, the Recording Industry Assn. of America withdrew promised marketing guidelines for explicit material out of concern over just such liability--an action that FTC officials scolded them for in their follow-up report.

“Sen. Lieberman and every legal expert in the United States know that his bill is unconstitutional,” RIAA President Hilary Rosen, whose Washington lobby group represents the nation’s five largest music conglomerates, said Wednesday.

“I would expect the Bush administration to realize that the music industry takes its responsibility seriously and that there is no need for legislation.”

Officials of the video game industry argued that the industry’s efforts to self-police are sufficient, pointing to a voluntary system of rating games that is similar to the way movies are rated.

“In our view, the whole bill is unconstitutional and, quite frankly, dangerous,” said Doug Lowenstein, president of the Interactive Digital Software Assn. in Washington, which represents game publishers such as Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp. and Electronic Arts Inc. “It puts the government squarely into the realm of content regulation, which is a very slippery slope for those who care about the 1st Amendment.”

Some constitutional scholars say it is not clear that the legislation would violate the 1st Amendment’s guarantee of free speech because it deals with commercial speech and children--two factors that have led the Supreme Court to relax free-speech protections.

“There is a notion in the law that has not yet been fully tested that you can protect minors as long as it doesn’t infringe on information that adults get,” said Georgetown University law professor Paul Rothstein when the bill was introduced in the Senate in April.

But the bill also has some political strikes against it. Democratic leaders may be loath to alienate Hollywood, a lucrative source of campaign cash for Democratic candidates.

Many Republicans appear reluctant to sign on to a signature issue for Lieberman, a potential Democratic presidential candidate. And lawmakers on both sides of the aisle share concerns about interfering with the creative process.

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Times staff writers Jeff Leeds, Alex Pham and Chuck Philips contributed to this report.

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The full text of the letter to President Bush is available at The Times’ Web site. Go to: https://www.latimes.com/bushletter