Group Hoping 5 Million Unplug From TV

Tue., April 21, 1998

Dan Freedman Hearst Newspapers

Is there life after television?

If the TV-Free America organization has its way, about 5 million people will find out Wednesday when they go “cold peacock” as part of the fourth annual TV-Turnoff Week.

According to Henry Labalme, founder of the group and chief organizer of the three previous annual turnoffs, 5 million viewers are expected to turn off their televisions until April 28. In doing so, they would be heeding the call of 35 state governors, 35,000 schools, and groups such as the American Medical Association.

This year, TV-Turnoff Week goes international, with organizers in Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina basing their local efforts on a how-to kits provided them by the TV-Free America organizations.

The campaign to discourage TV viewing faces daunting obstacles.

After more than 50 years, TV is etched deeply on the American psyche. The average American watches three hours and 44 minutes of television a day. According to Monte Burke, programs director for TV-Free America, that translates into 52 days a year of non-stop TV, or nine years of solid viewing by age 65.

Still, he said, the aim of TV-Turnoff Week is not to reform television or make it less violent or more educational. Rather, the idea is to pose a bigger question: What is television displacing in our lives and the lives of our children, families and communities?

Labalme’s answer: “Exercise, thinking, creating, doing.”

So what are families, especially those with young children, going to do with all this TV-liberation time? Take a walk, go dancing, read a short story, stargaze, climb a tree, wash the dog, watch the sunset and daydream are among the suggestions listed on the business cards of TV-Free America’s small Washington-based staff.

Reaction from the television industry ranges from a stifled yawn to mild apprehension.

“We’ve taken the view all along that the ultimate power of consumers is to change channels or turn the TV off,” said Jim Hedlund, president of the Washington-based Association of Local Television Stations.

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