Monday’s New York Times had a front page article (Eat Your Vegetables? Only at a Few Schools”) that mentions Channel One. I provide the link below and the section that mentioned Channel One. The New York Times has a free site but you need to register.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/13/national/13LUNC.html
“In most schools across the country the cafeteria managers, principals and athletic coaches undermine the relatively healthful, federally subsidized school lunch because they need to raise money. So they load up vending machines, from which they receive part of the profits, with high-fat, high-calorie, high-sugar candy, cookies, chips and ice cream. The school districts also sell vending machine rights to a soft drink company. Fund-raising drives collect money by selling more junk food.
These school districts permit Channel One, the television network for schools, to broadcast two minutes a day of commercials by McDonald’s, Hershey, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Frito-Lay and the like.
The diet of the children suffers accordingly. During a recent lunch hour at Albert Einstein High School in Montgomery County, students bought 440 servings of French fries — the most popular item by far. Another 360 students bought the fully prepared lunch. The cafeteria also sold 187 snack cakes, 118 slices of pizza and 56 bags of potato chips. At the bottom of the list were three bowls of soup and three fresh salads.
With an epidemic of obesity among the young — in the last 30 years the proportion of obese children has increased to 15 percent from 5 percent — government officials and nutrition experts say changes in school lunchrooms offer the best chance of weaning children from the sugar and fat that is ruining their health.”
(Correcting the New York Times is neat. Coca-Cola and Hersey have never advertised on Channel One News. Mars, Inc. (Snickers, M&Ms, Twix, Skittles) and Hostess (Twinkies, Cupcakes) have.)
Last year, Obligation released a study of 100 Channel One shows over a five year period. Channel One News average one junk food commercial a day for five years. Jim Metrock said, “Channel One executives have been totally irresponsible in their promotion of high-sugar, high-fat, high-calorie junk food to children. They have been irresponsible for over a decade. Channel One News has to accept partial responsibility for the obesity crisis among children.”
