WASHINGTON () -- With no force of law at his disposal to stop them, President Bill Clinton has used the White House bully pulpit to denounce the distilled-spirits industry for its plan to begin running liquor ads on U.S. television and radio stations.


By abandoning a voluntary ban on broadcast advertising that dates back to the 1930s, the industry will be "exposing our children to such ads before they know how to handle alcohol or are legally allowed to do so," the president said Saturday.


Clinton praised the four major broadcast television networks for declaring that they will not accept advertisements for hard liquor. He urged the nation's 1,200 independently owned television and radio stations to follow the networks' lead.