Morgan
Wandell decides what stories are on the in-school TV show. He is also
in charge of the Channelone.com web site.
Mr. Wandell is not what you call a "heavyweight" in the
world of journalism. He was a low-level producer for Channel One in
the early 90s. He left and went to Disney TV. He then got a job with
the notorious Digital Entertainment Network. DEN went kablooie. Wandell
came back to Channel One. He replaced Andy Hill as VP of Programming.
Mr. Wandell will be known as the man who began to seriously merge
advertising content with the news portion of Channel One News. Under
Wandell, Channel One reporters began to push advertised products on
air. A respected journalist would never cross the line between ad content
and news content. Mr. Wandell, however, loves crossing that line. He
has transformed the show into a royal mess and he may have lined up
Channel One for major legal problems this school year.
It is a violation of the contract for Channel One to broadcast more
than two minutes of commercial time during any show. Wandell disregarded
the contract and created "Cingular’s Question of the Day" which
snuck extra ad time into the show. Channel One anchors, under Mr. Wandell’s
direction, began to push Cingular and Nokia phones during the show.
Obligation has been told that some of the anchors didn’t like the idea
of "Cingular Question of the Day" but that Mr. Wandell won
out because he was the boss.
The Wandell version of Channel One also includes the "Gatorade
Play of the Week" which further increases advertising time on
the show. All Channel One anchors have taken their turns hawking Gatorade
on the show.
Morgan Wandell has turned the Channel One on-air personalities into
pitchmen for whatever Wandell tells them to pitch.
Mr. Wandell has done one thing very well: He has made Channel One
News almost completely irrelevant. Check out the web site he runs and
see how much news Mr. Wandell serves up for teens. Click on Channelone.com.
Finding news on this "news" site is like finding Waldo.
Obligation’s president Jim Metrock said, "Parents should be very
concern that one hour a week of school time is controlled by Morgan
Wandell. It is obvious that he believes advertising should permeate
every part of his ‘lite’ news show. Morgan is having a lot of fun,
and making a lot of money, at our children’s expense. Maybe soon, his
gravy train will end."
photo from Channel One News promo tape
