Andrew Sullivan seems to think no TV is good for the body, good for the soul, going so far as to approvingly post this letter from a reader:

If I were married with a 13-year-old today, I would make a very similar proposal. If my child did not watch TV for a year I would give my child $1,000 for the first year, $2,000 for the second year, $3,000 for the third year, and so on until he/she was 18. Any time during which my child watched TV would reset the progression. I might also offer the same bonuses for not drinking any soft drinks/highly sugared drinks as well as not eating from fast food chains.

Sugar soda and fast food is one thing, but encouraging your children not to watch any television comes at the inevitable expense of emotionally and culturally retarding them for the rest of their lives. No Lost? No Sopranos? No Daily Show? No Wire? No Colbert? No Meet the Press? No Office? No Simpsons? It’d be like paying your child not to read.

Though there’s always been a lot of crap on the set, TV is not inherently bad for you. In fact, it’s one the greatest blessings of the last hundred years. Without TV there’d be no civil rights movement, no feminist movement, no gay rights. Television is the 20th century’s great illuminating equalizer, the one, pioneering medium that first brought other people’s lives right into the comfort of our living rooms, finally ending America’s long, nasty love affair with segregation and the separate-but-equal.

Shame shame.