The article on media violence in the October 6 issue contains an important omission in stating that APA and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) declined to endorse the rating system because "it did not provide sufficient information to parents."

I represented APA and AACAP in the latter days of these negotiations with the media back in 1996, and I recommended to APA and AACAP that they not become signatories to the final negotiated agreement, primarily because the oversight and enforcement provisions were so weighted in favor of the media as to be meaningless, and only secondarily because the rating system itself was inadequate. Both the APA and AACAP boards accepted my recommendation and did not sign, despite considerable political pressure to do so.

Subsequent events have more than confirmed the concerns expressed at that time, which were the basis for APA’s decision, since the abuses of the media have grown rather than been contained or reduced.

Jerry M. Wiener, M.D.

Washington, D.C.

Dr. Wiener was APA president for the 1995-96 term.