Obesity Task Force Aims for July Deadline

OBESITY TASK FORCE AIMS FOR JULY DEADLINE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The chairman of the Task Force on Media and Childhood Obesity said on Wednesday that the group planned to report back to Congress and the FCC in mid July with recommendations for attacking the growing health crisis of childhood obesity. The first meeting of the task force , which was postponed from February 14 because of weather, was the idea of either Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) or FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. Both gave the other the credit for the idea. Sen Brownback said the first and last meeting would be public, and there would be private meetings in between to hash out ideas and best practices. Task Force Chairman Gary Knell of Sesame Workshop said that the goal was not to have a food fight, but to jointly issue a "declaration" on how to attack the problem, come up with an "inventory" of best practices that can be shared, and announce joint collaborations. Sen Sam Brownback said the time for finger pointing on the issue of childhood obesity was over. It's time for action, he said. But Dan Jaffe, EVP of government relations for the Association of National Advertisers, took the opportunity to point a finger at government. He said that while the industry had done a lot already to address the problem, like revamping its self-regulations and spending billions on education and engineering marketing to emphasize more healthy foods, they had not done enough and response had not been uniform across all sectors. He said that government had reduced or eliminated physical education programs and had not provided sufficient funding for nutrition education. He said he hoped one of the results of the task force would be for government to step up and restore those programs.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6426599.html?display=Breaking...

* Sen Brownback press release: http://brownback.senate.gov/pressapp/record.cfm?id=271054

* Chairman Martin's remarks: http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/martin/martin_taskforcespeech.pdf

*FCC Commissioner Copps: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-271677A1.doc

* Commissioner Tate: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-271678A1.doc
* Tate wants more fruits, vegetables on TV
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070322/tv_nm/fcc_dc