This video clip is from the introduction to the
January 31 show. It is similar to every other day. What you will
see when you click on the link to the QuickTime movie is what children
in Channel One schools saw at the very beginning of Channel One News.
Imagine you are a student in a school with a Channel One contract. You
are in your homeroom doing homework you should have done the night before
or your homeroom teacher is taking roll, when the Channel One TV set comes
on automatically. No one in the class turns it on. (Channel One has rigged
the TV sets to come on without the classroom teacher having to take the
initiative.)
You look up from your desk and this clip is representative of what you
see for the first minute of the show.
We have stopped the tape before the Channel One anchor begins reading
his first report. The time from the beginning of the show to the first
report is one minute and 18 seconds. Why would Channel One waste school
time putting the names of the production assistants, Francis Farinas and
Jasper Jan, on the classroom screen? Why have a goofy musical intro every
day when students could be doing something much more productive? Why show
student artwork (which HAS to have the Channel One logo or name in the
artwork or it will not be used by C1)?
Notice that Channel One has text on the first frame that says "Stand
By for Channel One News". This is an attempt by C1 to say that part
of their show is not part of their show. Channel One began breaching their
contract with schools many years ago by going over their 12-minute limit.
Channel One says that the quote-of-the-day, the student artwork, and the
credits (which often contain extra commercial messages) are NOT part of
Channel One News. Up until last year, during this introduction segment
C1 put up text headlines before the artwork and they still said that the
TV show hadn’t started yet. So far Channel One News has gotten away with
violating the contract.
