The myth of TV standby power consumption

One of the things that annoys me as a bit of a purist is when people talk authoritatively about things that are clearly not true. This is particularly true of emotive subjects such as ecologically sound power and the environment. Depending on who you talk to, either it is mandatory or it is foolish to rely on wind power another debate might be whether going on holiday or not will actually affect the number of flights that will take place etc.
The one that used to really get my goat was, "If you leave your TV on standby, it will use almost as much energy as if it is switched on" - nonsense. Perhaps in the days of some tube TVs, standby was used to keep the tube warm so it didn't take ages to switch on. This need gradually reduced over time as tubes got better. Anyway, nowadays, flat screen TVs are different. I picked a random Philips 32" TV and looked at the power consumption. When it is on, it takes 290 Watts and when on standby? 0.15 Watts, yes 0.15 Watts. In other words, if you left it on standby for an entire year and never watched it, it will still only use 1.3 KWh - 1.3 units - about 20p in cost and the equivalent of what a fridge uses in a single day or the washing machine/tumble dryer in about 20 minutes or a heater in the winter for 20mins-1 hr. In other words - almost nothing. The problem I have with it? It distracts people from real issues and things that make a real big difference like turning your thermostat down a degree or two and wearing a jumper. Or insulating your loft so your heating doesn't go out of the roof, or switching your lights off when you are not in the room or not washing clothes after they have been worn once (unless they are pants or socks!!).
The problem is people hear it, and they say it, repeat ad-infinitum (or is it ad-nauseum!). If only people would be able to separate truth from untruth, we might progress a bit quicker and not wonder why our effort to switch our TVs off hasn't made a blind bit of difference to the energy requirement.
(p.s. The same is also true of mobile phone chargers)