Now that Sen. John McCain has some time on his hands, he should use his newly-acquired national celebrity status for some good. He should take "Law & Order" producer Dick Wolf up on his nearly three-year-old challenge to debate him on the V-chip.

If he did his homework and was true to his reputation for "straight talk," McCain would wipe the floor with Wolf.

It started in the summer of '97 at the TCA critics' tour in Pasadena. Somebody asked Wolf about the TV Parental Guidelines ratings system, which had just been amended to include "content ratings" — V for violence, D for adult descriptions and so on. Wolf tried to brush off the issue, but once he got started ...

"I wish you people — This is the greatest gathering of television journalists every year ever assembled," said Wolf. "How come none of you has talked about the irony of Senator McCain leading the charge on protecting children from those murderous 30-inch Sonys out there, when this is a man who voted against the five-day waiting period and voted against the Brady Bill? Don't you think you see any kind of dichotomy here?"

The senator fired back a few hours later with a fax saying he was "flattered" by the attention paid to him by Wolf. Then he pointed out that content ratings have "absolutely nothing to do with gun control and everything to do with providing parents with information they may or may not choose to use to determine what programs their children watch." McCain added, "Perhaps Mr. Wolf is afraid to give parents this information because it may lead them to find his programs objectionable."

Wolf responded with his own fax and that's when he laid down the gauntlet. "I would be happy to debate the Senator at any time about the glaring contradiction between his taking on the mantly of being a protector of children, while doing nothing to protect children from handguns."

Unfortunately, that's where the discussion ended. In the meantime, we've had Columbine — a gruesome convergence of guns, media violence and sick kids — we've seen the V-chip become standard equipment, in what has to be* the least-publicized product enhancement in consumer history. And we've seen the nation's leading gun maker, Smith & Wesson, agree to install simple trigger-locks on its products and pledge to step up development of "smart guns" that fire only for their owners — a G-chip if there ever was one.

In my book, these three events — Columbine, the V-chip, and Smith & Wesson's capitulation — have shifted the balance in the Wolf-McCain debate. I don't think there's any doubt that the Senator could seize such a public forum and give the V-chip discussion unprecedented exposure. And the timing couldn't be better, with his visibility at an all-time high and with Congress currently mulling over violent video games.

Nor could McCain possibly find pick a better foil than Wolf, an abrasive personality whose rhetoric embodies many Americans' stereotypes about arrogant, out-of-touch entertainment types. Wolf is part of a breed I call the "Hollywood Firsters." It's a double-edged term: Nobody is as peculiarly rabid about the First Amendment as a Hollywood entertainment type; and a simple analysis of their position makes clear that these people put Hollywood's interest first — ahead of the public interest.

Using his bully pulpit, McCain could point out that the tobacco and gun industries are now less in denial about the public health hazards their products pose than the TV industry is about theirs. After all, as I noted in this story last year, there is no more demonstrable fact in child psychology than the link between television and aggressive behavior.

Wolf can bluster all he wants about McCain's Brady Bill votes, but that's all ancient history now. The largest gun maker, Smith & Wesson, has agreed to put an inexpensive lock on its goods; meanwhile the largest broadcaster, NBC, has still not agreed to fully comply with the simple trigger-lock on the TV set known as the V-chip. (NBC is the only major network still resisting content ratings.)

"A content-based system is just another word for censorship," harrumphed Wolf. "What you have now is people deciding what is appropriate content ... there is not going to be any continuity ... nobody is going to be satisfied with it."

Yeah, well, when was the last time you heard anybody say they were satisfied with everything they saw on TV? It's a ludicrous position to put the V-chip advocates into and Wolf knows it.

The point is, no one — not Joe Lieberman, not Sam Brownback, not John McCain and certainly not the President — no one wants to legislate the entertainment industry. They just want to shame the industry into doing what's right: accepting the fact that there will be filters on their content and telling parents they exist. Anything less than that is irresponsible. It's about time somebody with some clout stood up to the Hollywood Firsters on these matters.

Go on, Senator. Call up Dick Wolf and Judy Woodruff and let's get this thing on CNN.

Victim's mom: "Americans addicted to violence"

Dick Wolf on the "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," July 1997

Visit the TV Parental Guidelines site

Still more resources in the freshly updated "TV Critic's Toolbox"

The daily digest ... for March 22, 2000: This gets my vote for streaming-media event of the year so far: "Demolition Day: Seattle Kingdome," in which the world can watch as the 24-year-old sports complex is turned to rubble in about 15 seconds. The live webcast of the demolition will happen starting at 8 a.m. Sunday on Discovery's Web page; ESPN Classic will be airing the blast live as well. A video of the kaboom will air 10 p.m. next Wednesday as part of a TLC special on professional detonation ... Justin and Eric Stangel are the new head writers of "Late Show with David Letterman," replacing Rodney Rothman, reports the behind-the-scenes Wahoo Gazette.

Previously on TV Barn:
21 March: Sci-fi cast turnover
20 March: Midseason shows
17 March: Pilots of the airwaves
15 March: Reader mail
14 March: "Farscape" season no. 2
13 March: There's something about Gary Considine
10 March: WWF bolts USA deal

Coming up next ... subject to last-minute changes:
Thursday: "Nightline" at 20
Friday: Oscars!

On this date... in 1994, Roseanne and Tom Arnold continue on their world tour, destroying everyone else's movies and television shows, landing today in the city of Port Charles for a three-day stint on "General Hospital" as Jennifer Smith and Billy "Baggs" Boggs. -- Tom Heald

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