Yeah, now that I've done some more Googling, I think you're right. Here's a forum thread from AVForums where a user of a different model of set did the following:

- Noticed the faint glow in standby mode.
- Confirmed that the glow went away when he yanked the cord.
- Went back to the store and traded in the set for another of the same model.
- With the new set, the problem was gone.

My new opinion of the problem described in the original post:

DEFECTIVE TV SET, REPLACE.