Leave It to Bill

WASHINGTON: In spite of what some TV stations have reported to the Federal Communications Commission, reruns of "The Jetsons" are not educational programs for kids. At least, President Clinton thinks so, and he took his views on children's programming to a meeting with the television industry that ended late Sunday in a victory for education advocates. The main result: an agreement by the television industry to program three hours of educational shows a week for children. Surrounded by 50 TV executives, actors, children's advocates and producers, Clinton told American parents that they were not alone in the struggle to keep disturbing images away from their children. The FCC is not required to adopt the "three-hour rule," but if it does not, the agency will be blocking a move calculated to score family values points for the President as the November election approaches. Women voters, a key demographic group for the Democrats, are especially concerned about protecting children from images of sex and violence on television. At the meeting, Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, said: "This industry is together in a seamless web of unity, and we will do our level best to make it work." Really? Says TIME's Martha Pickerill: "The industry does not have a clear prescription for what educational programming is. It is hard to imagine that everyone in the TV industry will come to consensus on what standard to hold. TV networks fought a time requirement, and will probably not agree on a content requirement either." -->