ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 26, 1996 TAG: 9602270145
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID ZURAWIK THE BALTIMORE SUN
If ABC, NBC and CBS follow Fox's lead in coming days and promise to impose a ratings system for sex and violence on their programs, the word ``historic'' will be sounded often and loudly from Washington to Hollywood. After all, the networks have resisted calls for a ratings system for more than 25 years.
But such self-regulation may be more a bad rerun of the movie industry's evasive tactics than a watershed development, say media scholars. In their analysis, the proposed ratings system - it will be modeled on one instituted in 1968 by the Motion Picture Association of America - is mainly an attempt by the networks to dodge government regulation. It will neither reduce violence on the airwaves nor enable parents to keep objectionable programs out of their homes, they say.
``It is primarily a delaying tactic that's intended to alleviate the pressure,'' said George Gerbner, professor and dean emeritus of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
``It's always the same,'' said Douglas Gomery, author of several books on the film and television industry and a professor at the University of Maryland at College Park. ``They get into some kind of trouble in Hollywood, and then they rally around industry self-regulation to head off any possibility of government control.
The road to a network ratings system runs straight through the heartland of our culture wars, and traffic on the road has been very heavy recently: passage into law of the telecommunications bill with its V-chip provision, release of a highly publicized study of television violence by the cable industry, trial balloons from three networks on a ratings system, an announcement from Fox that it was committed to rating its shows and a summit this week between President Clinton and network executives.
It is all part of a pattern of new network ownership and election-year politics converging with a growing public concern over sex and violence in television and film. But it is a pattern not easily understood because of spin-doctoring from Network Row, Capitol Hill and the presidential campaign trail.
The first two dots to connect are the V-chip legislation and the ratings system. A few weeks ago, Clinton signed the telecommunications bill into law, with its V-chip provision requiring all new television sets starting in 1998 to have a computer chip that would read ratings codes embedded in programs and block shows with ratings deemed undesirable by the set's owners.
But for this system to work, a ratings system is needed. Another part of that provision gives the television industry one year to develop and institute a ratings system on its own. If the industry fails to do so, the Federal Communications Commission can step in and create a government ratings system - though, under the new law, the FCC does not have the authority to force the networks to adopt its system, a fact missed in many analyses.
The networks knew by the start of the year that the telecommunications bill was going to be signed into law.
But until recently, they seemed united in their contempt for the V-chip provision - mocking it as impractical, unconstitutional and vowing to fight it in court.
So, what happened that made the networks suddenly change their tune?
One factor involves network reaction to Clinton's State of the Union Address on Jan. 23, in which he said, ``I challenge the broadcast industry to do what the movies have done: To identify your programs in ways that help parents to protect their children.''
There is no real downside for the networks with the ratings system. To look as if they are giving something up, they say rating a program as violent can cost as much as $1 million per episode in advertising pullout. The networks cite figures from the first season of ABC's ``NYPD Blue'' to support that claim, but no one in the news and entertainment media has independently substantiated those figures.
Betsy Frank, media buyer for Zenith Media Services, counters network claims of how expensive a ratings system will be in terms of lost advertising, saying, ``We do a very good job of prescreening every episode of every program that our clients buy. Since we know our clients' guidelines, we know the kind of environment they want and the kind they don't want. So, I really don't believe violence ratings will make that big a difference.''
LENGTH: Medium: 78 linesby CNB