Today, Obligation and Commercial Alert joined together in the press release below. Several weeks ago, Channel One began an effort to use public school employees to help them document their viewership. Several contests were created to get their "key operators" (the librarians or classroom teachers that operates the Channel One equipment in each school) to do various tasks that would benefit Channel One.
These key operators were encouraged to gather signatures of teachers who show Channel One to their class, to confirm that the equipment is working, to show teachers a motivational film that would encourage compliance with the Channel One contract, and to try to sign up other schools for Channel One.
All of these efforts will get teachers into big trouble with their school boards, but it is the last effort that should land Channel One in extremely hot water in most states. Channel One says that they will pay their key operators $500 for each school that they sign up for Channel One. This effort bypasses the superintendent and principal. This compensation is going straight to the key operators pocket. Sign up 5 schools and you get $2,500.
Jim Metrock said, "Any public school employee who helps Channel One in any of these efforts is stealing from the taxpayers of their community. Channel One is just one of many vendors in the school. Any time spent working for Channel One comes at the expense of working for the school. The idea that a teacher would pocket money from Channel One is revolting. This may have gone on before. Hopefully each state that has Channel One will launch a complete investigation."
Metrock continued, "Just imagine a teacher at a school with Channel One making calls and writing letters to neighboring schools extolling the virtues of Channel One. Would this same teacher do the same thing for a company that supplies hot dogs to the school cafeteria? A few years ago, a teacher that would help a vendor like this would be fired. It is disgusting that Channel One has such low regard for teachers. They see teachers as tools for their profit."
Press Release
Commercial Alert August 27, 2001
Commercial Alert and Obligation Inc. sent letters today to state officials in all 50 states requesting an investigation of an offer by Channel One, an in-school marketing company, to pay $500 to public school employees in exchange for convincing a school principal to enter into a contract to receive Channel One’s product.
The groups, which oppose the commercialization of schools, sent the letters to state attorneys general and chief state school officers in all 50 states, as well as to the heads of state ethics agencies. As an example, following is the letter to Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly.
Dear Attorney General Reilly:
This letter is a formal request for an investigation of the "Share It Program" conducted by Channel One Communications Corporation ("Channel One"), a school-based marketing company owned by Primedia Inc. Through this program, Channel One is offering $500 to public school employees in the State of Massachusetts for convincing a school principal to enter into a contract to receive the Channel One service.
In effect, Channel One is hiring Massachusetts’s public school employees to promote its controversial product. This is a conflict of interest for school employees. Public employment is a public trust — which is violated when employees use their public positions for private gain.
Public school employees should not act as paid agents of private corporations. It is not the proper role of public school employees to be a roving sales team for Channel One’s efforts to commercialize the schools. Such activities are wholly inconsistent with the conscientious performance of school employees’ duties to the taxpayers who pay their salaries.
We urge you to determine whether state ethics laws and rules –especially those related to conflicts of interest or outside earned income — allow Channel One to pay public school employees to use the color of their public position for private gain. If such payments do violate state ethics rules or law, then we urge you to investigate Channel One, and to identify and take all appropriate action against every public school employee in the State of Massachusetts whom Channel One has paid.
If you have any questions about this matter, or want more information, please call Jim Metrock at 205.612.3376 or Gary Ruskin at 503.235.8012.
Sincerely,
Jim Metrock, President, Obligation, Inc.
Gary Ruskin, Executive Director, Commercial Alert
<—-letter ends here—->
