TV Industry Defends Age-Based Rating Plan Content-Based System Sought By Critics Dismissed By Valenti

Jack Valenti defended the TV industry’s proposed ratings system Thursday against complaints that it won’t give parents enough information about shows’ sex, violence and language. He also said the industry won’t use any ratings system other than its own.

Valenti is overseeing the industry’s effort to create a system to voluntarily rate entertainment programs on broadcast, cable and public television.

The six-tier, age-based system, similar to the one used for movies, will be unveiled next week and working by January, said Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association. Each category carries a broad content description.

Child advocacy groups and other critics call this approach too vague. They called on the industry again Thursday to include specific warnings for violence, sex and language and the intensity of each in every show.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., held open the door to forcing the TV industry to adopt such a content-based system through legislation. If so, Valenti promised: “We’ll see him in court.”

Valenti asserted that the multi-layered ratings system favored by critics would make it harder for some 500 producers and other program originators to rate their shows uniformly. The information also would not fit neatly into the grids of newspaper and magazine TV listings, he said.

Critics rejected Valenti’s assertions, contending the TV industry simply doesn’t want to flag shows for specific violent, sexual and language content, fearing it may scare advertisers away.

“This is all money driven. It has nothing to do with the First Amendment integrity of Hollywood,” said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who wrote a provision into law calling upon the industry to devise a ratings system.

Valenti, in turn, accused Markey of acting like a government “Big Brother” by trying to bully the industry to adopt a certain ratings system.

The ratings system is subject to Federal Communications Commission approval. If the FCC finds it unsuitable, it can move to appoint an independent advisory board that would create a new ratings system. But the TV industry isn’t under any legal obligation to use it.