What JP Kids hasn't been able to do, and what led Steyer to write his book, was to single-handedly reform the world of children's media. "What I learned the hard way is a very sobering lesson," he writes in The Other Parent. "Market forces and the short-term profit goals of a few giant media corporations-not quality issues or kids' needs-dominate the media world, including nearly all the 'edutainment' content produced for kids."

Take the time Steyer met with the director of children's programming at the WB Network, who warned him that the surest way to get a project killed was to describe it as "educational" to the network president. Disney, so synonymous with family entertainment, is also, Steyer points out, the master of scorched-earth merchandising. When the latest Disney animated feature opens, it does so not only in theaters, but in supermarkets, fast-food restaurants, and toy and clothing stores across the land. (The Lion King alone earned over $1 billion in licensing revenues.) "When you see this business from the inside," Steyer says, "you realize it is one big, sophisticated marketing machine selling things to kids."

In a nice bit of jujitsu, Steyer was able to use that same marketing machine to help promote The Other Parent, and he spent much of May and June doing interviews and appearing on such programs as "Oprah," "The Today Show" and "CNN Saturday." Steyer chuckles: "As my brother Tom said to me, 'For the author of a book that's so critical of the media, you sure managed to use it to promote your message.' "

Steyer wrote The Other Parent expressly for other parents, who, he believes, "should be as involved in their kids' consumption of media as they are with their schooling." That starts, he says, with the amount of media kids consume, which, according to a University of Maryland study, now averages around 40 hours per week spent "staring at the tube or the computer screen, listening to the radio or CDs, and playing video games."

Steyer understands that the popularity of these electronic babysitters has everything to do with the hectic schedules in most American households. "Parents are exhausted and overwhelmed," he acknowledges, "and it's just so easy to turn on the TV or the computer and say, 'Go play.' I know, because I've done that." Steyer doesn't advocate a total media blackout-as if such a thing were possible-but he does urge parents "to use media in a much more thoughtful way." He recommends establishing good media habits early; keeping both TVs and computers out of kids' rooms; setting a "media diet" and sticking to it; watching TV with kids, and talking with them about you've seen. And when in doubt, he adds, "switch the dial to 'off.' "

FIRM But Fair

There is one other thing Steyer hopes parents will do: Organize, ideally by joining Families Interested in Responsible Media (FIRM), the grassroots organization he has just founded. "As I was writing the book," he says, "I knew I wanted to go back to the advocacy world and create a new, nonpartisan voice for kids on these issues." (Shortly before The Other Parent was published, he stepped down as CEO of JP Kids and now serves as chairman.) "There's a lot of public concern, but very few places to turn for help."

FIRM will receive its official launch in January 2003, and once it does, Steyer hopes it will become the "go to" place parents turn to for help. Plans are for the organization's website (www.firmonline.org) to serve, in part, as a clearinghouse where parents can "share their lessons and concerns, and receive practical tools and information-a comprehensive Zagat guide to all kids and family media."

But FIRM also hopes to use its membership to pressure "industry leaders to change many of their worst practices, and to create more and better family media choices," says Steyer, and to urge the government to "uphold the laws that ensure the right media for the right audience at the right time." Backing up the membership will be FIRM's board of directors, which includes not one, but two former FCC chairmen (William Kennard and Newton Minnow, regulatory activists both), as well as other leaders in media, education and business.

If timing is everything, then the recent wave of corporate scandals-and the accompanying public outcry-may help FIRM in its drive for reform. "The same kind of hands-off deregulation that led to the Enrons of this world is exactly what's happened in the media world," says Steyer, who called for the breakup of big media companies in his book. "And the current FCC oversight of media accountability is about as good as Arthur Andersen's was of Enron."

But the greatest challenge Steyer and FIRM may face is how to stand up for kids without appearing to stomp all over the First Amendment. In the mid-1980s, Tipper Gore fought a similar battle when she called on the recording industry to institute a labeling system. In the process she managed to unite, in one unlikely swoop, industry tycoons, the ACLU and Frank Zappa in opposition to her campaign.

Steyer, who has taught civil liberty law for years, practically smacks his lips at the prospect of debating the finer points of the First Amendment with all comers. "The First Amendment is for liberal media executives what the Second Amendment is for right-wing conservatives and the National Rifle Association," he says. "By framing every criticism as a threat of censorship, they derail any discussion and action on the real, underlying issue-the need to protect kids." FIRM hopes to do a little derailing of its own with its slogan, "Encouraging Sanity, Not Censorship."

Media executives are one thing; the kids FIRM seeks to safeguard may be another, especially older kids, teenagers who've grown up amid this brave new mediascape and think they can find their way around pretty well. What, for example, would the teenage Jim Steyer, the one who spent his lower year rebelling against authority, think of FIRM?

Steyer laughs. "That's why I can't wait to come to Exeter and talk to students," he says, something he will do later this year when he gives an assembly talk about his work. "You have to respect them and you really have to listen to them. But you also have to tell them what you think." And like the teacher that he is, Jim Steyer will be sure to do both.