White House Wag: Ratings Rhetoric

N E W   Y O R K, Sept. 17, 2000 -- What do the films Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List and The Patriot have in common?

All three were rated R, at least in part due to their violent content. And President Clinton, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Al Gore all believe no teenager should see them.

That’s what one would be led to believe after listening to their comments on the Federal Trade Commission’s “Report on the Marketing of Violent Entertainment to Children.” The trio blasted the movie industry for using advertising to try encourage teenagers to view R-rated films.

“They say these rating systems mean something,” the president declared in a speech Monday in Scarsdale, N.Y. “They can’t turn around and advertise to people that shouldn’t see this stuff.”

In an interview with ABCNEWS later that morning, Mrs. Clinton said, “We found some disturbing information about how they target R-rated movies that are totally inappropriate to children between 12 and 18.”

And just Saturday, Gore warned an audience here in Washington that “movies rated inappropriate for children are being aggressively marketed to children.”

“That’s wrong and it has to stop,” he said.

Some Parents May Approve

What none of the politicians seemed to consider is that some parents may consider some R-rated movies appropriate for their teenagers. (Teens are really the ones we’re talking about here. Despite all the talk about “children,” the FTC study found no evidence that R-rated movies were being marketed to those under 12 years of age.)

The ratings themselves recognize that. According to the industry’s Classification and Rating Administration, a Restricted or R rating means that “parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their children to see it.” Only an NC-17 rating signals that “most American parents” would consider the film inappropriate for children or teenagers.

This distinction is made in the FTC report but was lost by the politicians. The report says the agency reviewed the marketing of films, music and video games whose ratings indicate that they “are inappropriate for children or warrant parental caution due to their violent content.” Well, saying something warrants parental caution is quite different from saying it’s totally inappropriate for anyone under 18.

It’s possible that the Clintons and Mr. Gore were referring to and passing judgement on the 35 R-rated movies that the FTC found were deliberately marketed to teenage audiences. Maybe all reasonable people would share their view that no teens should see these movies, although if that’s true they should have been rated NC-17.

Of course, while those in the government have access to the titles of the films the report looked at, the FTC has declined to make that list available to the general public. (The report does mention Gladiator and The Patriot as examples of recent R-rated films. I would venture to say that most parents would have no problem with their teens seeing those movies.)

One other point neglected in the brouhaha this week: there is no persuasive evidence linking exposure to violent material in the teen years with violent behavior. There is some evidence that younger children act out more after repeated exposure to violence. But no one has ever been able to make that link for teens or adults.

President Clinton’s speechwriters did manage to rein him in on that point. In his speech Monday, he twice noted that the science shows that children “at young ages” may be impacted by violent media. Then, he went on to talk more about the urgent need to keeps teens away from movies, TV shows and video games containing violence. Go figure.

An Arkansas Grudge

Whom does President Clinton blame for the ongoing effort to strip him of his law license? The media. But the Beltway press corps needn’t brace itself for another onslaught from the occupant of the Oval Office. He lays this one squarely at the doors of Little Rock’s daily newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

In an interview last month with the Washington Post, Mr. Clinton made clear that he believes that the decision an Arkansas Supreme Court committee made in May to seek his disbarment was the product of his political enemies at the Democrat-Gazette.

“They basically intimidated all the good people off that committee,” Clinton said. In February, the paper reported that five of the 14 people eligible for the panel that would handle Clinton’s case had donated money to one of Clinton’s campaigns or to other Democratic efforts. The Democrat-Gazette ran a few more stories as panelists recused themselves. About eight people ended up stepping aside.

In the end, a group of six Arkansas citizens concluded that Clinton’s conduct in the Paula Jones civil case violated bar rules and that he should be disbarred. Within hours after the decision was made, White House aides suggested to reporters that those who remained on the committee were biased. One Senate Democrat called the panel a “kangaroo court.” (The paper later reported that four of the six who considered Clinton’s case had voted Democratic in recent elections.)

Clinton said the owners of the Democrat-Gazette had it in for him long before they drove the Gannett-owned Arkansas Gazette under and bought its assets in 1991. The president complained to Post reporter John Harris that the Democrat and its successor “was in a tirade daily against us.”The Democrat-Gazette’s editorial page has certainly not minced words about its position. “Disbar the shyster,” read the headline on one in a series of withering editorials the newspaper has published on the subject.

So it’s understandable that Clinton waxes nostalgic for the old Gazette. “It was one of the great progressive newspapers in America for decades,” he said. “Arkansas, I believe, was hurt by the fact that the Arkansas Gazette couldn’t go on.”

(In its article based on the interview, the Post indicated that Clinton believed that members of the committee had been “hectored into recusing themselves,” but the story didn’t say that the president blamed the Democrat-Gazette for the pressure. The full transcript of the interview was released on Thursday by the White House.)

Josh Gerstein has covered the White House for ABCNEWS since 1997.