by David Walsh

About the author: Psychologist David Walsh is founder and president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, an organization that works to help parents and other adults make informed choices by providing information about media products that are likely to impact on children.

[In 1996] Seagrams broke a 60-year voluntary ban on liquor advertising on radio and television, an act that was greeted with an avalanche of negative reactions from children’s advocates, health care people and political leaders of both parties. Nevertheless, liquor marketers are vowing to press on with plans to advertise over the airwaves.

[In July 1997] the Federal Communications Commission met to consider whether to launch an inquiry into regulating this potential advertising windfall for broadcasters. However, a 2-2 split blocked the attempt, which requires...