Channel One anchor Seth Doane and Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.
From Jim Metrock:
On Tuesday, February 14, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings
appeared on Channel One. She was shown answering questions from
high school students at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. Channel
One called this short "Q&A" session a "Town
Hall" meeting.
BPI is a very serious college prep school that emphasizes math,
science and technology courses. It has a very demanding curriculum.
These teachers and administrators are no "slackers" when
it comes to maximizing the learning experience for students.
So why is Channel One News at THIS school? After all, Channel
One News is not a "best practice" of dynamic and effective
schools. I decided to place a phone call to Baltimore.
Baltimore Polytechnical students don’t watch the
daily show.
I called the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and
got a person fairly high up in the school administration. I said
I saw that Secretary Spellings had come to the school and that
I had a question. I asked, "Does your school have Channel
One News?"
I was expecting a "no" answer, but got
a "Yes, we do." Whoa.
I asked, "When do you show Channel One?"
"We show it before school starts," the
person said.
Double whoa.
I asked, "Do you mean it is shown before the
first bell of the day?"
"Correct."
"Thank you."
That, ladies and gentlemen, is a clear example of
the widespread contempt for Channel One’s contract. Poor Channel
One can’t even find a school to host their show that doesn’t openly
breach their contract. How long this has been going on may be a
question that Channel One may not want to know, but the advertisers
sure want to know.
Of course, this revelation is embarrassing for Channel
One. The picture above shows BPI students in front of Channel One
anchor Seth Doane and the Education Secretary. One thing both of
the people sitting on the stools have in common is that few students
had ever seen either one.
Does Channel One consider BPI a "Channel One
school"? Sure they do.
Does Channel One include BPI’s 1,200 student body
in the "over seven million" audience number in their
press releases? Sure they do.
Does Channel One charge advertisers, including the
federal government, rates based on audience numbers that include
BPI’s students? That is the Big Question. If they do, then Channel
One executives could be in for big, life-changing trouble.
Secretary Spellings should be embarrassed too. Channel
One may very well be overstating their audience numbers and therefore
may very well be presenting inflated advertising invoices to federal
agencies. Sec. Spellings shouldn’t be a part of any Channel One
program because Channel One robs schoolchildren of school time.
She certainly shouldn’t be on a program that may be overcharging
the very government that she is working for.
What is Channel One going to do with the BPI high
school? That’s a tough one. If C1N demands that BPI move the program "between
the bells," then BPI could tell Channel One to pick up the
TV sets. That would force Channel One to tell advertisers to subtract
1,200 student from their potential audience. That would mean less
revenue which in turn means that the fat cat Channel One executives
may not be able to maintain their comfortable lifestyles.
The remaining managers at Channel One News better
be getting ready to live a more frugal life.
If Baltimore Polytechnical Institute is representative
of schools with Channel One, then Channel One is truly Channel
Done.
