TELEVISION - Aug. 6, 1991

Networks Fight Back: The National Television Assn., founded last year by CBS, NBC and ABC to help state their case to advertisers, Congress and the public, issued a three-page appeal Monday, urging advertisers not to give in to threats of boycotts and not to shun controversial programs. The letter says the networks “vigorously support” freedom of expression. But it asserts that “boycotts and so-called advertiser ‘hit lists’ are attempts to manipulate our free society and democratic process.’ ” The Rev. Donald Wildmon, a Tupelo, Miss., minister who has been assailing the networks over program content for years, said he was “delighted this letter has gone out--I think it shows we are indeed having some effect.” Meanwhile, Concerned Viewers for Quality Television, a small activist group in Wilmington, Del., is proposing a national 24-hour “Turn Off TV Day” for Oct. 29 to protest what the group considers excessive sex and violence and programs that go against traditional family values.