Top entertainment industry association executives have been invited to meet with Vice President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday to discuss ways to stem violence in U.S. media and society, industry officials told TheWrap on Wednesday.
Among the executives sources confirmed to be on the White House’s invitation list: Chris Dodd, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America; Gordon Smith, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, and Michael Powell, president of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.
A White House official declined to comment on who had been asked to attend the private session or to speak to the session's agenda. But Biden, pictured with Attorney General Eric Holder, has been meeting with a variety of parties this week “as part of the effort he is leading to develop policy proposals in response to the tragedy in Newtown,” the official said of the shootings at an elementary school in Connecticut last month that left 26 dead, including 20 young children.
Dodd, one of the invited guests to Thursday's meeting, is a former U.S. senator from Connecticut.
Biden, who is also planning to meet with representatives of the video game industry, has met with victims’ groups and gun safety organizations on the issue. Biden also plans to meet with “advocates for sportsmen and women and gun ownership groups,” the White House official added.
“Soon after the conclusion of these meetings, the Vice President will present his recommendations to the President, who then will announce a concrete package of proposals he intends to push without delay,” the White House official said.
