TV Protest Week A Misguided Effort Keep The TV On But Show Some Discernment In Deciding What To Watch

Fri., April 19, 1996

By Doug Floyd dougf@spokesman.com

Television can educate you, inform you and entertain you. Or it can isolate you and broil your cerebral cortex.

It can be used or abused, and surveys tell us that Americans are big-time abusers. So a Washington, D.C., organization called TV-Free America wants all of us to switch the tube off - for a week - beginning Wednesday.

A week’s abstinence is supposed to purge us of the mind-numbing toxins we absorb for four hours a day. National TV-Turnoff Week will make us a healthier, more productive nation, says TV-Free America.

True, television serves up junk such as “Melrose Place,” “Beavis and Butthead” and the Home Shopping Network.

But it also brings vital news events into our homes, sometimes as they unfold. Its documentaries can deepen historical understanding and help families bridge generation gaps. It delivers performing arts to isolated communities no ballet company will visit.

TV-Free America doesn’t differentiate between the worthy and the woeful. Indiscriminately chucking everything will lead to life-enriching discoveries, the group says.

You say your family was looking forward to the 6-1/2-hour Metropolitan Opera special on KSPS-TV on April 27, right in the heart of National TV-Turnoff Week? Listen to a Luciano Pavarotti CD instead. At least you’ll get the sound.

Thirty-five years ago, Newton Minow, then chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, branded TV a “vast wasteland.” But his indictment didn’t prevent the proliferation of television and television viewing then, and a thin, symbolic gesture such as National TV-Turnoff Week won’t reverse it now.

Today’s microwave dishes and cable systems let most communities pick among dozens of channels. Programming goes on around the clock, and no home is complete without a VCR to tape what’s on while you are sleeping or working.

If you share the concerns embodied in TV-Turnoff Week, you probably already use judgment in your television viewing. But this is one appeal that those with real problems - the ones who have worn the numbers off their remote-control buttons - will tune out.

Some television is good; some stinks. It’s discernment that matters. However, TV-Free America doesn’t recognize that, and National TV-Turnoff Week doesn’t encourage it.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view see headline: TV protest week a worthwhile idea

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, EDITORIAL - From both sides

For opposing view see headline: TV protest week a worthwhile idea

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, EDITORIAL - From both sides

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