FIRST OFF . . .

The House on Tuesday voted, 399-18, to give an antitrust exemption to the TV industry so it can try to adopt voluntary guidelines aimed at curbing violent programming. The bill would give television networks, local stations, producers and the cable TV industry a three-year antitrust exemption to work up guidelines for depicting non-news violence on television. At present, such discussions would violate the Sherman Antitrust Act, which caused the demise of previous industry self-regulation under the Television Code of the National Assn. of Broadcasters. A Senate version of the bill was approved May 31 with an amendment by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) that also would allow the TV industry to discuss ways to curb scenes that glorify drug use and portray sexually explicit material. A House-Senate conference committee will have to work out differences in the two bills, which probably won’t take place until after the August congressional recess. Broadcasters, aware that Congress could impose mandatory restraints, have supported the legislation but are concerned that they would be vulnerable to lawsuits from anyone they did not include in the talks on curbing violence. Broadcasters instituted a “family viewing hour” in the 1970s but abandoned it in 1976 when the TV industry was sued by the Directors Guild of America on First Amendment grounds.