As a political twister engulfed the 2-month-old TV-ratings system last week, Jack Valenti, entertainment-industry lobbyist extraordinaire and president of the Motion Picture Association of America, finally relented.
"We're going to probably make some changes as we go down the line," he told a horde of reporters Thursday after congressional hearings on the new ratings system. "We want to see if it works with the V-chip."
Valenti's comments on behalf of the broadcast industry signal an amazing reversal - late last year the industry insisted that the ratings system it adopted would stick, despite criticism from parents groups and others. Now, a few thousand postcards later, Valenti knows the routine: Express a willingness to bend in order to hold back the congressional wolves.
The ongoing debate revolves around whether to stick with the industry's current age-based system, or migrate to a content-based system that gives viewers more information on a show's level of violence, sex, or profanity. Broadcasters have argued that rating shows in this much detail would be burdensome.
But a slew of TV-ratings meetings last week could push broadcasters - kicking and screaming - into a compromise. It all started last Tuesday when first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton joined Representative Billy Tauzin (R-Alabama), national PTA president Joan Dykstra, and other children-loving luminaries to announce a free videotape available through your local cable company to teach "critical viewing."
Then on Wednesday, Senators Ernest Hollings (D-South Carolina) and Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota) introduced a bill to push the more violent programming into late-night hours. The night before, NBC had broadcast a largely unedited version of Schindler's List, prompting Representative Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma), who is helping to draft a companion bill in the House, to rail against NBC's decision. Coburn, who is co-chairman of the Congressional Family Caucus, said that airing the celebrated Holocaust movie on prime time exposed children to "vile language, full-frontal nudity, and irresponsible sexual activity." He later apologized after his colleagues, Jewish foundations, and good old NBC took him to task. He should have known better.
So as bills, hearings, and the occasional gaffe continue to season the ongoing TV-ratings debate, look for some kind of content-versus-age compromise to emerge. Valenti, who helped create the similar movie-ratings system 30 years ago, can read the writing on the hearing-room wall. He knows changes will be made. It's just a question of when. And how.
