BILL TARGETS MEDIA MARKETING.

Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - After scouring the House for weeks, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., on Thursday recruited a pair a freshmen, including a football legend, to run interference for his drive to tackle Hollywood's allegedly deceptive marketing.

First-term Reps. Tom Osborne, R-Neb., retired head coach of the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers, and Steve Israel, D-N.Y., who said he was moved to act by rapper Eminem's lurid lyrics, introduced the Media Marketing Accountability Act at a Capitol Hill press conference with Lieberman.

The measure is an exact House copy of a Senate bill, introduced by Lieberman in April, that would empower the Federal Trade Commission to fine film, music and video-game producers up to $11,000 per day for marketing fare they have rated R to persons under age 17. Such marketing would be defined as a deceptive business practice.

Jack Valenti, director of the Motion Picture Association of America and Hollywood's top Washington lobbyist, has vowed to scrap the movie industry's voluntary ratings system if Lieberman's bill becomes law, thereby avoiding any legal liability.

``This bill is fatally flawed,'' Valenti said Thursday. ``It actually punishes those who voluntarily provide information to parents while giving those who do nothing a free pass.''

Valenti also said he believes the measure violates First Amendment free speech guarantees and predicted courts would quickly throw it out.

``I can't believe they would drop their ratings,'' said Lieberman. ``Even though they are not perfect, there is a public interest in them.''

``Some in the industry will frame this as a First Amendment issue,'' said Israel. ``But for them, it isn't about protecting speech, it's about protecting their profits.''

Osborne, who built a gridiron powerhouse at Nebraska that won two national titles and shared another during his 25-year career, said that marketing of violent or sexually explicit entertainment fare to youths was a factor ``in what I call the unraveling of the culture.''

Lieberman said Thursday that support from Osborne was a bipartisan breakthrough. He has been unable to line up Senate Republican backers for his bill, which is co-sponsored by Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and Herbert Kohl, D-Wis.

The Creative Coalition, a New York-based lobbying group led by actor William Baldwin, issued a letter urging Lieberman and his cosponsors to drop the bill. Baldwin argued that ``a government role in defining acceptable'' entertainment is an indirect form of censorship.

The new House measure is a response to an FTC report in September that found R-rated movies, music and video games were being marketed to children as young as age 8. A week after that report was released, Hollywood studios announced a 12-point marketing reform plan. Similar actions were announced by the recording and video game industries.