THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 26, 1995 TAG: 9504260588
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
In the Molinaro family room, baseball still is on strike, the NBA playoffs are a rumor, and SportsCenter has taken a sabbatical.
In case you haven't heard, we are in the middle of National TV Turnoff Week.
I wonder how many people know about TV Turnoff Week. Most people get their news from television, and I doubt that CNN has been actively reporting on an event aimed at getting America off the couch.
TV-Free America, the organization behind TV Turnoff Week, points out that the tube is bad for us. It must be. Otherwise, we wouldn't crave it so.
With that in mind, I pledge my support. The set stays off. For the rest of the week, I agree to give up all shows, including those featuring excessive violence, deep moral corruption, suggestive sexual situations and insulting dialogue.
So much for the evening news.
It's true, though, that TV sends out the wrong messages, especially to kids. It contributes to their poor academic performance and warps their perspective of the world. It frightens and exploits them.
Too much TV makes kids grow up too fast, and prevents some adults from growing up at all.
TV is a conspiracy against Americans. I'd gladly stop watching forever . .
Sports make up the best programming on TV today. Not just the best, but the healthiest.
Nothing in sports can give kids nightmares, with the exception of Dick Vitale.
If children watched only sports on TV, they would rarely be assaulted by episodes of cartoon violence and excessive bloodshed.
Unless they were fans of the NHL.
Compared with the usual swill pumped out by TV, sports are pure and simple. The games we watch need not come with parental advisories. That's something you can't say about a lot of prime time programming.
As TV fare goes, sports are as wholesome as ``Barney,'' more suspenseful than ``Matlock,'' less calculating than Sam Donaldson, and as reliable as Larry King's suspenders.
Sports do not insult our intelligence, except when Don King is on the screen. You have to be on the ball to follow the action. And, in the case of Hubie Brown, it helps to speak a foreign language.
We know why TV fell in love with sports. The games, matches and tournaments are relatively cheap to produce. Unlike dramas and sitcoms, sports programming does not require actors or scripts.
Except in the case of professional wrassling.
Speaking of geeks and goons, even sports at their worst can look down on TV infomercials. And while sports give us Bonnie Blair and Michael Jordan, athletes who elevate our spirits, Geraldo, Rikki and Maury give us America's unhinged.
Sports fans are no different from other TV addicts who are looking for a break from life. But at least the fantasy world of sports offers cleaner, more uplifting entertainment than ``Hard Copy,'' ``Melrose Place,'' and ``Married .
To be sure, sports suffer from countless excesses. But there is truly less hot air trapped inside a blimp floating over a televised football game than there is in one Rush Limbaugh show.
A promise is a promise. I'll pick up the NBA playoffs next week. Baseball, too. There's no hurry.
You could argue, though, that sports should be exempt from the TV boycott on the grounds that games, highlights and scores make up the most honest programming the tube has to offer. by CNB