The House divided

Gephardt chastizes GOP's violence bill & H'w'd

By CHRISTOPHER STERN

WASHINGTON -- House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) said Thursday that the recent Republican-led effort to ban extremely violent movies, music and videogames would have violated the Constitution but done little to correct the real problems that are leading kids to commit acts of violence.

The Republican proposal, authored by House Judiciary Chairman Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), would have made it possible to ban any form of entertainment that courts found harmful to children. But Gephardt told Daily Variety Thursday that the Hyde amendments were a "knee-jerk" solution that "wouldn't have protected children."

A House judiciary spokesman replied that the Hyde amendment was tailored to match Supreme Court decisions. Those decisions found that obscene sexual material can be considered to be harmful to children and therefore can be subject to more restrictive treatment under the First Amendment. Hyde attempted to extend restrictions on sexual material to violent material.

Aside from tougher gun control rules, Gephardt said Congress needs to address the real roots of America's most troubled youth. Those problems, said Gephardt, include a weak school system, a lack of after-school programs and a scarcity of child care for working parents.

Common-sense tools

Gephardt, Congress' top-ranking Democrat said, the entertainment industry should continue supporting "common-sense tools like the V-chip" and software filters that allow parents to sift through entertainment programming for material that they think is appropriate for their own kids.

There is a broad effort in Washington now to build awareness for the V-chip, which has been implanted in televisions by major set-makers under order of the Federal Communications Commission. On Thursday, Attorney General Janet Reno and FCC Chairman Bill Kennard videotaped a panel discussion to be aired on Court TV that encouraged parents to use the new technology, which allows them to block a program based on its content rating.

Media part of bigger problem

While not dismissing that the media is part of the violence equation, Gephardt said it is just part of a much larger problem of youthful aggression. The current debate over violence was kicked off recently when two teenagers in Littleton, Colo., killed 11 people -- most of them students -- at a high school before taking their own lives. Gephardt pointed out Thursday in a telephone interview that an average of 13 kids die every day in America from gunshots.

Although the House passed other measures aimed at the entertainment industry, including a nonbinding "Sense of Congress" resolution that calls on the Hollywood to stop producing violent movies, it failed to pass any significant gun control measures. "The (National Rifle Assn.) won," said Gephardt.

However, the Senate did pass some stiff gun control proposals. It remains to be seen what the final bill will look like before Congress sends it on to the White House for President Clinton's signature. The House and the Senate are expected to begin meeting to hammer out differences between their respective legislative proposals in the coming weeks.

Despite his defense of the First Amendment, Gephardt says the entertainment industry needs to question its use of violence. "There are things that can be done better," said Gephardt. "The producers of software should think about their use of violence."