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Feds Rap Music Biz
In its follow-up study to last year's report on the marketing of graphic entertainment to children, the FTC said Tuesday it was encouraged by the initial responses of the motion picture and video game industries to modify their policies, but the feds were aghast at the "almost complete failure" of the music recording industry to change its tune.
Of course, the Grammy-winning Eminem tends to be the poster boy (or, if you prefer, lightning rod) when it comes to lyrical offenses.
"Unfortunately, the music industry response, at least so far, has been disappointing in its failure to institute positive reforms," FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky said in a statement.
The first of the two reports (originally ordered by ex-President Bill Clinton after the Columbine High School massacre in April 1999) pretty much left the music industry alone and focused instead on video games and the movies.
No such luck this time.
Tuesday's report rips the recording industry for going back on a promise not to advertise albums with parental advisory logos in "publications, online sites or any other commercial outlet whose primary market" is minors.
The music industry counters that it has, for the past 15 years, voluntarily placed warning labels on albums with profanity and explicit lyrics and has even gone so far as to issue alternate, more kid-friendly versions to placate peeved parents. But, the industry's chief lobbying body says, it's not about to set age limits for record buying.
"Music is unique for the same reason there are no rating systems for books. The works of musical artists are not rated. It's virtually impossible to rate words," a rep for the Recording Industry Association of America said in a statement issued Monday.
Although the FTC report doesn't suggest any specific action against the music industry, it does expect public pressure and criticism will force self-regulation.
Connecticut Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman is expected to introduce a bill later this week that implements some sort of regulatory system; it will suggest punishing firms that market violent media products to children.
But doing that is contrary to the First Amendment, the FTC reports in its own study.
And that is something Jack Valenti, president of the film industry lobbying group the Motion Picture Association of America and outspoken critic of legislating entertainment, seized on in a speech Monday at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas. "Before you make that call, be wary, be cautious--for throughout history whenever a tyrant first appears he always comes as your protector."
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