Viewers encouraged to tune out

It's halfway through National TV-Turnoff Week, an annual grassroots event.\nOrganizers hope viewers will skip out on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and "Survivor" in favor of community-based activities. The Monroe County Green Party has planned several local events to publicize the movement, including a Wednesday nature walk and a family game night Friday.\n"Kids spend more time watching TV than they do at school," said Green Party Coordinator Peter Drake. "It's inherently disturbing; it's a major part of our lives and it's disturbing that it doesn't involve exercise or interacting socially."\nDrake throws out a statistic from Nielsen Media Research -- that the television is on for 7 hours and 40 minutes every day in the average American household. He doesn't think that's healthy.\n"It shapes the way we view the world around us," Drake said. "Consumerism is constantly impressed on people. You have to remember -- the viewer isn't the consumer; the viewer is the product they're selling to advertisers."\nFor Isabel Piedmont, tuning out for a week isn't much of a sacrifice, although she said she enjoys "Seinfeld" and "Law & Order." Piedmont, who's spearheading the nature hike, said she tries not to watch more than eight hours a week.\n"I think it's a great idea," she said. "I hope this week will force people to think about what they watch and their alternatives -- social interaction and communication, for instance. You might be sitting next to someone while watching TV, but you don't talk.\n"You sit there with your eyes glazed over."\nPiedmont said she worries that some parents allow television to raise their children.\n"It's something that children just plop down and watch," she said. "It acts as a babysitter -- and that's a dangerous thing."\nIt's the first time Piedmont will celebrate the annual event, which has been around for seven years. Founded to convince people to "turn off television and turn onto life," it's scheduled for the last week of April -- sweeps week.\nIt's drawn fire from some television executives, including Robert Sachs, president of the National Cable Television Association.\n"Denying children TV is no more likely to encourage kids to enjoy reading, for instance, than denying kids ice cream would encourage them to like brussels sprouts," Sachs told a gathering in Washington, D.C., according to Reuters.\nDrake said he doesn't agree with Sachs' assessment that the movement is feckless and out of touch with mainstream society. But he said the point isn't to convince people to stop tuning into their favorite programs.\n"We're not trying to get people to stop watching TV," Drake said. "But it's important that people actively make the decision of what they will watch and why."\nFor more information, visit www.freespeech.org/mcgreens/tv/