On The Third Hand

OK I’m behind the times, I never heard there was an International TV Turnoff Week. And I guess it’s this week based of White Dot’s website. Not being a large consumer of what television has on offer it might be interesting to see what these people are planning to celebrate such a momentous occasion.

• Show customers they don’t have a real say over how these places are run.
• Show owners of restaurants and cafes that TV may be LOSING them customers.
• Start a conversation about noise pollution, image pollution and public spaces.
• Suggest to owners they use a TV Free atmosphere to attract customers.
• Show that ordinary customers are wise to the way TV is being pushed at them.
• Tell people about the new and growing industry in “captive audience television".
• Show that ordinary customers HATE being a captive audience.

It all sounds fairly innocuous on it’s face. I had assumed “captive audience television” was a result of millions of TV automatons tuning into American Idol, but I could be wrong. Let’s look further into this groups agenda.

Remember what your favourite diner, pub or coffee shop was like before they put in the TV screens? Help us get rid of them! Add to our database of Ruined Diners and help us target them with leaflets, petitions and direct action.

Oh, oh… there’s every domestic terrorists favorite phrase, “direct action.” You know the type, the ELF’s favorite direct action is to burn down housing developments or SUV dealerships. PETA takes great pleasure in throwing simulated blood on your kids as you enter KFC, and their latest is to target the “King of Beers” and Bud Light ads.

White Dot apparently isn’t going to such physical extremes, but as you might expect they are going to be intrusive

BRITISH campaigners are to mark a global anti-television week in novel fashion, they announced on Monday – sending out a stream of activists armed with gadgets which switch off any sets within a 7-metre radius.

The campaign, organised in Britain by a group called White Dot, said its aim for TV Turnoff Week, which started Monday, was to remove television “pollution” from public areas such as pubs and bars.

A band of volunteers would be unleashed carrying the US-made TV-B-Gone gadget, which transmits a stream of infrared codes to turn off more than 1000 television models within range, the group said.

“We are going to be going into pubs and either turning off the TV and leaving information or asking people, ‘I just turned off the television. Did you notice?’,” David Burke of White Dot said.

“People may think it is intrusive for an anti-television campaigner to go into a public house (bar) and turn off the television, but a lot of people find the television intrusive.”

Why yes, it would be damm intrusive! And I suspect the TV will be turned back on (to a Manchester United game no doubt), the volume turned to the max and these idiots will be quickly shown the front door. End result? The game goes on, and a White Dot “activist” will be laying in the gutter clutching his/her electronic gadget, among other more “personnel things” (Oops, so much for having a family!) that may have been damaged in the process.

Excuse me while I unsheath my cluebat… Just because a pub is a public place doesn’t give anyone, including “TV activists,” the right to change what the owner has provided for his customers. End of story!

Well almost the end. The White Dot organization was founded in Chicago and they plan the same type of “TV activism” in and around that fine city. Imagine if you will these idiots strolling into Murphy’s Bleachers one fine afternoon and zapping the Cubs game off the TV screen. A full scale riot would ensue. Chicago’s finest would be pulling apart combatants for hours! And with luck the White Dotters won’t be having any children due to the previously discussed “damage.”

Cross posted within the Cranial Cavity