HOLLYWOOD—Lieberman Takes Aim at Kids’ Access to Violent Media

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Sen. Joseph Lieberman wants to testify to Congress this month on one of his pet issues, reducing children’s access to violent entertainment. It’s a play that could backfire for the Democratic vice presidential candidate, political analysts say.

Lieberman has asked to testify before a U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing to discuss a U.S. Federal Trade Commission report that, according to people familiar with the document, says that despite denials, media companies are trying to sell violent programming to minors.

The FTC study, which hasn’t been made public, says companies are flouting their own voluntary ratings systems and failing to warn about the amount of blood and gore that will be shown in their products, according to people familiar with the report.

Any effort by Democratic candidates to criticize violence in entertainment could expose them to charges of hypocrisy for taking contributions from Hollywood, analysts said.

“It sounds like a good idea, but it can also backfire,” said Larry Sabato, a professor of political science at the University of Virginia. “It’s very easy to see that the Republican members of that committee will ask Sen. Lieberman what he thinks of the millions of dollars the Gore-Lieberman ticket have collected from Hollywood.”

Lieberman and Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore can be expected to address children’s access to violent entertainment during the race for the White House, said Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein.

“This is a longstanding concern” of Lieberman’s, Gerstein said. “It’s something they won’t shy away from.”

A political football

Lieberman isn’t alone in his impatience with media violence. President Bill Clinton and lawmakers in both parties asked the FTC to study media marketing last year and report back to them. The FTC report’s conclusions were reported in The Washington Post.

FTC spokesman Eric London declined comment on the report’s contents, saying only that it would be released in mid-September. The Senate Commerce Committee hearing, tentatively set for Sept. 13, will call on media executives, as well as physicians and psychologists, to testify, congressional staff members said.

The Bush campaign already is questioning the Democrats’ credibility on the issue.

“The more important point is whether Sen. Lieberman backed away from his position on Hollywood and the media to be more in line with the Clinton-Gore administration,” said Ray Sullivan, spokesman for the Bush campaign.

Criticism of media violence increased after several school shootings, including the Columbine High School massacre, in which two teenage students gunned down 12 classmates and a teacher. The shooters, who killed themselves, favored violent video games, police said.

Already, Lieberman and Arizona Republican John McCain, chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, have co-sponsored legislation that would require the industry to place labels on movies, home videos, compact discs, records and video games.

The legislation would amend current laws limiting tobacco advertising and labeling and would empower states to crack down on movie theaters and stores that sell violent content to underage children.

Lawmakers say they’re hoping the industry will take voluntary steps to avert labeling legislation. The industry has said it has taken steps to guide parents, such as providing ratings on movies and video games.

Proponents of the legislation say they’re not seeking to censor the media, or throw action-movie stars like Mel Gibson or Arnold Schwarzenegger in prison for their on-screen shootouts.

“This is not censorship legislation,” said David Crane, a Senate Commerce Committee staff member. “This legislation places no restriction on what can be produced.”

Proponents of the legislation also say it isn’t an attempt to take parents off the hook for their child-raising responsibilities.

“Parents have the primary responsibility in all this,” Lieberman spokesman Gerstein said. “It’s hard to do the job in today’s culture. It’s placing an unfair burden on parents to say that they are solely responsible.”

Savvy politics

Media experts say it’s politically shrewd to blame entertainers instead of a voting bloc of tens of millions of parents.

“Complaining about the media is very popular,” said Syracuse University communications professor Robert Thompson, director of the school’s Center for the Study of Popular Television. “It’s even popular among those people who watch these violent shows.”

The public is more primed for restrictions now than it was in the mid-1980s, when Tipper Gore, the wife of then-Sen. Gore, waged a campaign to force music companies to place labels warnings parents and children of violent and sexually explicit lyrics.

Since then, more sex and violence in movies and on prime-time television, and exploitative tabloid television shows, have fueled public ire, analysts said, noting that the public continues to consume such programming. Music, movies and videos are now examined as a pathological trigger that could turn audience members into violent criminals, they said.

“We have seen a major shift in the past 10 years, that instead of looking at the media and communications in terms of a First Amendment model, we’re now beginning to look at this as a public health model,” said Syracuse University professor Thompson. “These are dangerous times for the First Amendment.”

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