Mr. Ballabon recently flew from New York to Alabama to meet with conservative legislators and other influential people in an attempt to win friends for Channel One. Mr. Ballabon failed to tell the Alabama citizens he meet with that the product he was pushing was outlawed in public schools in his home state of New York. He must truly believe that Alabama citizens will continue to trade away a week of valuable school time to his company in exchange for the LOAN of aging 19″ TV sets and their advertising vehicle – Channel One News. Sorry, Jeff, our state can’t be exploited by your company any longer.
We will be publishing more about Mr. Ballabon because he appears to have replaced Paul Folkemer as the “Moral Filter” for Channel One. Mr. Ballabon has implied that the excesses of Channel One in the past are over because HE is now there to filter out bad content for kids.
Mr. Ballabon has been working with Channel One since this spring. He has been the VP of Public Affairs for several months. He apparently has power to disapprove ads and other non-news content if it offends him. He, along with Folkemer, must have approved the violent “Bats” commercial, the “Topless Girl” ad, and the recent ad for the violent “James Bond” movie.
Jeff Ballabon and Paul Folkemer are two extremely important people in the lives of America’s schoolchildren. They approve the ads on Channel One’s TV show and the web site. What they like and dislike is now important to all parents who are unfortunate enough to still have Channel One in their schools. Does Mr. Ballabon get a chuckle out of the junk food ads he approves for kids? Did he go see “The World Is Not Enough” James Bond movie before he gave it his stamp of approval? Are these men more accepting of violence in children’s entertainment than the public? Or are they fighting to keep the violent and sexually-charged movies ads off Channel One but are being over-ruled? Are they fighting to keep M&M, Snickers, and Twix commercials off Channel One because they know of the rise in obesity in children, but they are being voted down by higher executives? If these men come to your school district, ask them some hard questions.
Both of these gentlemen are being paid to support Channel One. That’s their job until they quit or are fired (few top management stay for long at this company). They have a tough job trying to sell people on this advertising gimmick called Channel One. They probably earn their high salaries. Nevertheless, the public needs to know what they think is OK to push on children. They determine what over 8 million kids will be told to purchase. They will decide what movies and TV shows our children will desire to see. They will approve the candy and soft drinks that will be relentlessly marketed to our children. Who are these guys?
