The Joe & Hil Follies

Two of the most famous figures in the Democratic Party, Senators Joseph Lieberman and Hillary Clinton, have introduced the Media Marketing Accountability Act of 2001, which, among other things, would make it illegal to market or promote adult-rated rap and rock-and-roll albums to kids under 17 and would empower the Federal Trade Commission to decide which R-rated films may be marketed to minors.

In April, Senator Clinton said, "If you label something as inappropriate for children and then go out and target it to children, you are engaging in false and deceptive advertising." And this summer Democrats, occasionally joined by some Republicans, have browbeaten entertainment-industry leaders at Congressional hearings, accusing them of evading the rating system and selling salacious material to young people. But the R rating on films doesn't mean kids under 17 shouldn't see them; it means they shouldn't see them without an adult. Many parents want their kids to see such R-rated films as Billy Elliot and Erin Brockovich. As for records, the "parental advisory" sticker informs the buyer that the record contains profanity, but it does not have an age recommendation.

Lieberman disingenuously says, "We're not asking the FTC to regulate content in any way, or even to make judgments about what products are appropriate for children." But that's precisely what his radical bill does. It empowers the FTC to "establish the criteria" for new ratings for records and films, and would legally require record companies and film studios to create and implement "an age-based rating or labeling system." Marketing would be deemed to be targeting minors if "the Commission determines that the advertising or marketing is otherwise directed or targeted to minors." With the FTC defining marketing to minors on the basis of FTC-mandated ratings criteria, backed by the crippling financial penalties for "unfair or deceptive acts or practices," it would be able to decide which music and movies could be mass-marketed and thus, by and large, which ones would be released.

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