Channel One Goes Dark – Students Freed From Mandatory Broadcast

May 23, 1998

It’s been a fairly bad year for
Channel One: growing condemnation of its brash, in-your-face
style of marketing to children, a major study showing Channel
One is a monumental financial rip-off, a U.S. Senator calling
for hearings on Channel One’s waste of school time, and now a
freak satellite problem pulls the plug on Channel One.


Schoolchildren across the country
were given a reprieve from Channel One’s commercial exploitation
when the Galaxy IV satellite’s spin controller and backup failed
this past week.


"Hopefully, schools will
never allow Channel One back in their schools next school term,"
said Jim Metrock, Obligation president. "It’s sad that a
computer glitch did what school boards should have done a long
time ago."