IN DEAL WITH TV NETWORKS, U.S. DRUG OFFICE IS REVIEWING SCRIPTS

WASHINGTON - Over the last two years, the White House has reviewed some
scripts and advance footage of such television shows as "E.R." and "Beverly
Hills 90210" under a little-known financial agreement with the networks
that encourages them to include anti-drug messages in plots of programs.

As part of the arrangement, White House drug policy officials scrutinized
in advance more than 100 episodes on all the major networks. If the
government signs off on a particular show, the networks receive credit that
reduces the number of costly public service announcements they are forced
by law to broadcast.

The government officials, in the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, said they had made some programming suggestions to the
networks. But television executives, who are participating in the effort
voluntarily with an eye on the bottom line, insist that they never gave
control of the content of their shows to the government.

"NBC has never ceded creative control of any of our programs" to the drug
policy office or any other department of government, said Rosalyn Weinman,
the executive vice president of content policy for NBC.

The other networks issued similar statements.

But various networks and television studio executives said they did look
for episodes that might satisfy the interests of the drug office.

The practice surfaced today in a critical report on Salon, an Internet
magazine, that labeled the practice "prime-time propaganda." Although not
widely known, the programming effort had been outlined by Gen. Barry R.
McCaffrey, director of the drug policy office, in a Congressional hearing
last fall.

Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project, a public
interest law firm, told Salon, "This is the most craven thing I've ever
heard of yet.

To turn over content control to the federal government for a modest price
is an outrageous abandonment of the First Amendment."

Under the program, government officials get an advance look at whatever
shows the networks want to submit and an opportunity to make the case that
anti-drug messages be inserted. Occasionally, the drug policy office might
suggest that a scene be changed or a line rewritten to show characters
turning down marijuana or ruining their lives through cocaine, said Alan
Levitt, an official in the drug policy office who helped create the
program. In the vast majority of cases, Mr. Levitt said, no suggestions are
made.

Officials with the drug policy office defended the arrangement as an
effective way to spread anti-drug messages to young people without
infringing on creativity. Drug use among young people has dropped by 15
percent in the last year, drug policy office officials said, crediting both
a government advertising blitz and anti-drug programming.

"I guess we plead guilty to using every lawful means of saving America's
children," said Bob Weiner, a spokesman for the drug office. "But we don't
interfere in the creative process. We don't say they can't run anything. We
don't tell them what to say or not to say."

Representative Jim Kolbe, an Arizona Republican whose appropriations
subcommittee finances the drug policy office, approved, saying:

"It's a new program. We're going to watch it closely. Certainly some
questions have been raised about it. But we want to get the message out to
young people."

Mr. Levitt said all the major networks had participated in the arrangement,
saving more than $20 million in advertising costs. Although he listed
numerous shows that had been reviewed by his office - including "E.R.,"
"Touched by an Angel" and "Cosby" - he declined to provide the list.

Congress in 1997 financed a huge anti-drug advertising campaign that
required media outlets to match any advertising time bought by the federal
government with public service time. That essentially gives the drug office
and other government agencies the ability to buy advertisements at half price.

But since 1997, the demand for television advertising has risen, and
networks were seeking to sell more time at full price. So the government
worked out a compromise: networks can reduce the amount of advertising time
they are required to provide by broadcasting anti-drug shows. The networks
can then sell air time that would have gone to the government for half
price to regular advertisers for full price.

Every network issued statements asserting that it had never ceded any
control over its shows' content to any governmental office. Yet all but one
acknowledged having sent either final drafts of scripts or tapes of
completed shows to the advertising agency representing the drug office,
seeking credit from the government.

The exception was the new and smaller network, WB, which conceded that it
had submitted scripts in progress from "Smart Guy" and "The Wayans
Brothers." Both shows were doing episodes on the theme of drug use, and
both altered their scripts as a result of suggestions by government personnel.

Jamie Kellner, the chief executive of WB, said his network's motivation was
to "try to find expertise" to help make the episodes accurate.

"We submitted the scripts to get their input and make sure we were handling
the stories in the most responsible way," Mr. Kellner said.

"They're not editing the scripts," he said.

"They may say something like, 'This will only work in the story if the
person is truly inebriated.' "

Like several other producers whose shows were used to help generate network
credits, John Tinker, who produced the medical drama series "Chicago Hope,"
never knew that his shows were being sent to the government.

"I would certainly have liked to know about it," Mr. Tinker said.

Aides said General McCaffrey was not available for comment today.

At a hearing in October before a House appropriations subcommittee, the
general outlined the complicated system of credits.

"An on-strategy story line that is the main plot of a half-hour show can be
valued at three 30-second ads," he said. "If there is an end tag with an
800 number or more information at the end of a half-hour show, it is valued
at an additional 15-second ad. A main story line in an hourlong prime-time
show is valued at five 30-second ads, while such a story line in a one-hour
daytime show is valued at four 30-second ads."

The general also discussed the complexity of sending the right message,
saying: "We realize that you cannot shoehorn a drug message in a script
where it does not belong. It must appear organically. Sometimes only a
one-second frown or wave of the hand when someone is offered marijuana is
all that is needed."

Rich Hamilton, an advertising executive who helped create the arrangement,
said the program did not force networks to offer anti-drug shows.

"We'd say to a television network, 'You're already doing this and it's
great you're doing this,' " said Mr. Hamilton, chief executive for the
North America operations of Zenith Media Services in New York. " 'And if
you're planning, once our paid campaign begins, to continue this, send us
the script and we will not rule out giving you credits for it.' "