ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 2, 1997 TAG: 9704020045
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
On the heels of his popular tobacco confrontations, President Clinton is taking aim at hard liquor.
President Clinton, who scored political points in taking on the tobacco industry, targeted liquor distillers' TV ads Tuesday. ``Liquor has no business with kids,'' he declared.
But even as Clinton argued he was protecting children and helping parents, he struggled to explain why his move against liquor ads - which stopped just short of recommending a regulatory ban - did not touch the far more pervasive television advertising for beer or wine.
He acknowledged that his aim, for now, is a return to the status quo last fall - before distillers lifted their 50-year, self-imposed ban on radio and TV ads. Vintners and brewers, a politically powerful lobby that spends millions of dollars in Washington, have freely advertised all along.
``I think we ought to start with the principle of no backsliding,'' Clinton said in outlining his request that the Federal Communications Commission study the impact of lifting the ban and make recommendations for possible federal action.
``We must do nothing - nothing - that would risk encouraging more of our young people to drink hard liquor,'' Clinton said in a Roosevelt Room ceremony with Vice President Al Gore.
Distillers voted in November to end the ban after Seagram's ran a limited number of ads in Texas. Ever since, FCC Chairman Reed Hundt has sought an official inquiry but the commission remained deadlocked 2-2 on the question.
Hundt hoped Clinton's announcement would sway dissenting commissioners James Quello and Rachelle Chong, and allow the investigation to proceed.
While saying he hoped the industry would voluntarily agree to stay off the airwaves, Clinton said that if the agency finds liquor ads harmful to youngsters, ``I think the FCC has grounds to act.''
Pressed several times to explain why beer and wine ads were left out of the directive, Clinton said: ``I think the liquor industry itself once thought that there was a distinction to be drawn, if for no other reason than alcohol content, between beer and wine and hard liquor, which is why they observed this distinction for 50 years. I think they were right.''
He appeared to leave open the possibility of broadening the FCC study, saying that ``if there is no difference, if there are problems, the FCC can evaluate whatever evidence comes in.''
But White House spokesman Mike McCurry later told reporters: ``I'm not aware of anyone foreseeing a next step that suggests that you look at beer and wine. I think we're just taking it one step at a time.''
Cracking down on tobacco industry ads aimed at children proved a good issue for Clinton in his re-election campaign. Tuesday's liquor announcement, which mostly reiterated past policy statements, was meant to reinvigorate a similarly good ``pro-family'' issue that Clinton first seized upon in a Father's Day radio address last year.
But distillers were quick to cry hypocrisy Tuesday. And some groups denounced any distinction between hard liquor's harm and the dangers of beer drinking.
``Alcohol is basically alcohol,'' said Karolyn Nunnallee, president-elect of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. ``When beer is the number one alcoholic beverage of choice among our youth, it just doesn't make sense that these beer ads would not be targeted also.''
Elizabeth Board, spokeswoman for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, noted that the major national networks still refuse to run liquor ads and only 50 of some 1,000 cable stations have accepted ads since November.
By contrast, she said, beer commercials saturate the airwaves - $2.5 billion worth since Clinton took office.
``If the administration is serious about children and wants to look at the issue of alcohol and advertising, we have no quarrel about that. But they cannot do it by ignoring 99 percent of the alcohol advertising on television,'' Board said.
Former Sen. George McGovern, spokesman for the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, agreed that ``seductive'' beer and wine ads posed the greater threat to young people, but said he understood the political reality Clinton faced in taking on broadcasters and the advertising and liquor industries.
``I've learned long ago you have to be satisfied with partial steps on an explosive issue like this,'' said McGovern, who lost a daughter to alcoholism.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. W.J. Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the House Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications, is pursuing behind-the-scenes negotiations with industry representatives for voluntary restrictions on ad content and placement that would cover beer, wine and liquor alike.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 linesby CNB