Hill-FCC Media Obesity Task Force is Inactive
A unique task force on the media’s role in obesity, months late reporting (CD Nov 8 p4), has been inactive for some time, five participants said. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who belong to the group, haven’t communicated with the whole task force for months, they said. The group hasn’t met since fall, said Dan Isett, Parents Television Council policy director, and other participants. The task force includes broadcast and cable network and medical group representatives, children’s advocates and FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Deborah Tate. Subgroups haven’t been active either, said Isett, Children’s Now Vice President Patti Miller and others.
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No recent “developments or ongoing discussions” have occurred, Miller said. Kids’ advocates and industry lobbyists said they remain far apart, but some remain hopeful of negotiating an accord on a report. Isett and Miller said networks should screen food ads meant to air during kids’ programming, to make sure they meet nutrition guidelines, but industry refuses. Networks should play a “gatekeeper role,” said Miller. “Across the board, a lot more needs to be done by the media companies.” Companies claim they've done all they can, and networks aren’t inclined to block ads for fatty and sugary food, an industry source said.
A report on anti-obesity efforts, due in summer 2007, was delayed to last fall as discussions stretched out. Hope is fading for a consensus permitting the report’s release, participants said. “It’s hard to be optimistic when we haven’t had a meeting in months and we haven’t heard anything from either of the senators’ offices or the chairman’s office” in that time, Isett said. “There’s not much light at the end of the tunnel.”
No public word has issued from the agency or Capitol Hill on when a final report may arrive. Brownback, Harkin and task force leader Gary Knell, president of Sesame Productions, didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. The group last met in June, the FCC Web site said. Participants cited smaller meetings since, noting that recently they've tailed off. Child obesity “remains a very important issue” at the FCC, said a commission spokesman. “The task force continues to track and review the current trends related to childhood obesity and the impact that the media may be having.”
Marketers and food producers have done much to reduce junk food commercials, efforts that will hold no matter what the task force’s fate, said two advertising lobbyists who serve on it. “Whether it is memorialized in a report or not will not change that,” said Dan Jaffe, executive vice president of the Association of National Advertisers. “We spent a great deal of time and effort putting materials together, and a report would be fine if we could come to an agreed position.” It’s natural for work to take longer than expected in a unique effort, said Adonis Hoffman, senior vice president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. “Some of the stakeholders are not quite as invested or agreed on the findings,” he said. “You want to take your time and produce a good document, and that’s what’s happening.”