Veiled threats at FCC
One day after telling NBC president Robert Wright he would urge the FCC to question the Peacock web's fitness as a broadcast licensee, McCain asked the nominees if they thought it was a good idea to review the license of any broadcaster that failed to sign on to the new rating system.
Two of the nominees, Gloria Tristani and Michael Powell, said the licenses should be reviewed, the third, Harold Furchtgott-Roth, was less equivocal. "I think that might be a circumstance that might raise a flag," Furchtgott-Roth said.
There is nothing broadcasters fear more than an FCC review of their fitness to hold a broadcast license. The reviews come once every eight years and revocations are extremely rare, but the process does put assets that are sometimes worth hundreds of millions of dollars in jeopardy.
The FCC could also raise the ratings issue when NBC applies for permission to purchase a TV station. NBC is currently waiting for FCC approval of WVIT in Hartford, Conn., and has room under current ownership rules to buy other stations as well.
NBC sources said Tuesday the network will stick with its decision to boycott the new content-based code while continuing its use of the age-based rating system. "Sen. McCain is asking the FCC to enforce something that is supposed to be voluntary," one NBC source said. The source added that NBC will deliver a written response to McCain this morning.
Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday the Clinton administration would do what it could to bring NBC on board. "President Clinton and I are going to work hard to make sure this system is adopted throughout the industry," Gore said during a White House event Tuesday held to celebrate the new content code. In addition to NBC, cabler BET also has refused to sign on.
NBC Tuesday said it had no plans to change its course and was not receiving much pressure from parents on the issue.
"We are not changing our position,"' said NBC spokeswoman Kassie Canter. "The fact is we're doing a lot."
NBC said it has taken various actions to expand on the age-based ratings system, including increase use of onscreen advisories to parents that "put a show's content in context."
In an official statement, the network said it considered its efforts ---which also include public service announcements and a Web site for ratings information --- "more reliable and easier to understand than anything provided by the other TV broadcasters."
House Telecommunications Subcommittee chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) said Tuesday that he is siding with NBC in its confrontation with McCain. "This is a voluntary ratings system. American television viewers, not Washington politicians or bureaucrats, should be the ones telling NBC to adopt the new system," said Tauzin.
While the nominees gave McCain the answer he wanted Tuesday, they are not bound by their statements. In general, any federal nominee going through the congressional confirmation process does his or her best not to say anything that would result in them losing their jobs even before they have the chance to move into their office suites.
Nonetheless, their responses put the nominees in the middle of the ratings controversy even before they have been officially confirmed by the full Senate. That confirmation is expected soon after the Senate Commerce Committee makes its formal recommendation on Oct. 7. Their confirmation was almost guaranteed Tuesday when they won clear bipartisan support from several committee members including McCain and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.).
Today William Kennard, the nominee to replace FCC chairman Reed Hundt, will take his turn in front of the Commerce Committee. Kennard, like the other nominees, is expected to face questioning about the new rating system. Unlike the others, Kennard is well known in Washington. For the past 3-1/2 years he has been the FCC's general counsel and before that he worked as a communications lawyer. Kennard also worked briefly at the National Assn. of Broadcasters, where he specialized in First Amendment issues.
While much of the questioning by the Senate Commerce committee members focused on the ongoing debate over competition in the telephone industry, several members also expressed concern about efforts by the current FCC to regulate hard liquor advertising on television. Sen. Wendell Ford (D-Ky.) said any investigation that looks at hard liquor advertising should also examine the impact of beer and wine ads.
Broadcasters are very worried that the ongoing controversy over hard liquor ads in Washington will spread to a debate over beer advertising, which accounts for more than $600 million in annual advertising revenues. Both Tristani and Powell agreed any examination of hard alcohol should include beer and wine advertising as well.
