See the lineup at:
http://www.channelonenetwork.com/corporate/bios/advisory_board/
From Jim Metrock:
A few weeks ago, Channel One News announced the members of their “Advisory Board.” If you click on the link above you will come to the bios of each board member.
They have several things in common.
All the board members are teachers. Although some of them may be parents, we find it peculiar that no members were chosen because they were just parents. Parents have always had concerns and fears about what Channel One News advertised to their children.
David, Emily, Jim, Kay, Kelly, Paula, Randy, Roy, Sonya, and Tami.
One will also notice something bizarre. None of the board members give their last name for their “bio.”
This is what I guess you would call a “semi-anonymous” advisory board. It is strange that you would give permission to have your picture made public but not have the city you live in or last name listed. Are they ashamed of their service on this board? Or are they “partially ashamed” of working with Channel One? How can other teachers or parents communicate with these people? If someone has a suggestion about Channel One and wants to have a member of the Channel One Advisory Board bring up their concern in a meeting, they can’t do that.
Another thing they have in common is they are all white. Unbelievably, there are no African-Americans on this board. Channel One, of all companies, because of its large African-American student audience and large Hispanic audience should have an abundance of minority members on this board and in its executive offices.
On the public face of Channel One, on their TV show, they have always had a diversity of reporters. Yet I do not know of one Channel One executive that I have ever met that is African-American or Hispanic, but then again I haven’t met them all. The fact that their hand-picked advisory board has no faces of color is appalling. It is insensitive and it is a hard slap at the school districts that have a large minority student population.
This is not the fault of David, Emily, Jim, Kay, Kelly, Paula, Randy, Roy, Sonya, and Tami. This was a conscious, well-thought out decision by Channel One News and it stinks. It is un-American.
Obligation has always considered Channel One News a 21st century form of indentured servitude. Schools become indebted to Channel One for the loan of some TV equipment and the students are made to work off the debt by sacrificing their school time to watch fluffy news and Hubba Bubba bubble gum commercials. It is wrong for a corporation to have such control of schoolchildren. Students have a right to a full education without companies like Channel One usurping their school time.
I don’t think any public school teacher should be on this Advisory Board. It is a conflict of interest for a teacher to agree to help a particular school vendor to become a better and more profitable company. Taxpayers are not paying the salaries of David, Emily, Jim, Kay, Kelly, Paula, Randy, Roy, Sonya, and Tami so they can use their position as a teacher to aid a company that has a contract with that school’s board of education. We would have chaos in our schools if teachers did what these ten teachers have done.
Can you imagine this discussion in the teacher’s lounge:
Mary: Hey, this is your break, what are you busy working on?
Ann: I’m on the advisory board for Acme Food Service and their contract is coming up for renewal and they are concerned it might not be renewed. I’m helping them by getting a petition signed by parents, students and teachers urging the board to keep Acme.
Mary: Oh no. I’m on the advisory board for Econo Food Service and they want to win that contract. This is terrible.
Ann: Acme pays for an annual trip to Washington and they pick up my hotel tab and all meals. I think Acme is the best food service company there is.
Mary: I’ de be willing to switch if I can get that same trip deal.
When Channel One asked for people to submit names to be considered for the advisory board, they said that those chosen would have opportunities to be spokespersons for Channel One. This is fraught with danger for teachers because of state ethic laws and local district restrictions on teachers. Channel One also said they would have at least one yearly meeting of their advisory board members in Los Angeles. (Of course, that was before Channel One announced they are closing down their LA studio and are moving to an undisclosed location in Washington, DC.) Will Channel One pay for the air fare, hotel room and meals of board members? If they do, these teachers could find themselves in trouble.
However Channel One came to have an all-white, nameless advisory board, we’ll probably never know. They may use the old line that no minority applicants met the rigid standards for this board. Yeah, right. However they arrived at the composition, it just… doesn’t… look … good. You know what I mean? It looks so early 1950.
Below is a summary of an old study of Channel One. Things have not changed much since them. Channel One’s onerous contract (one hour a week for the use of TV sets) hurts the schoolchildren who need that time the most.
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CHANNEL
ONE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: WIDENING THE GAPS Michael Morgan October, 1993 |
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Summary and Conclusion Overall, schools that receive Channel One are mid-to-large sized (but not the most crowded) schools; they are slightly more likely to be found in urban areas, but the reach of Channel One in suburban and rural schools seems nearly as great. They are slightly more likely to have higher proportions of African-Americans, or to have a medium proportion of Latino students. They are especially likely to be located in South Central, Mountain, or South Atlantic states, rather than in New England or the Pacific states. Most of all, however, Channel One is most often found in schools with the largest proportions of low income, underprivileged students, and in schools that have the least amount of money to spend on conventional educational resources. Ironically, these schools have more high-tech equipment, in no small part due to Whittle Communications’ own contributions, but they invest substantially less in teachers, texts, or other instructional materials. The relationship between spending on texts or other instructional resources and accepting Channel One is especially striking: Channel One is apparently used instead of traditional materials when resources are scarcest. Schools that can afford to spend more on their students are much less likely to utilize Channel One. Given these patterns, the greater devotion to commercialism that students apparently develop from watching Channel One is particularly disturbing. That is, Channel One is more often shown to the students who are probably least able to afford to buy all the products they see advertised. It requires no stretch of the imagination to suggest that this in turn may enhance their alienation and frustration. The commercialization of the culture — and increasingly, perhaps, of the schools — means that other voices and interests, less able to generate profits, are being shut out of the educational system. It seems inevitable that Channel One will further entrench and legitimize the power of massive private commercial interests in those public arenas where a diversity of voices is most badly needed. The results from a new four-year study, just released by the Department of Education, sound similar to so many others we have become accustomed to hearing about, but these are more shocking than usual: according to the report, almost half the nation’s adults have low reading comprehension and math skills. Worse, the study points to increasing divisions in society between the haves and the have-nots, based on poverty and racial/ethnic status. Low income students and youth of color attend schools most in need of a substantial infusion of resources. These are the same schools that give their students Channel One instead, creating the illusion of providing more and better educational facilities. In this way, Channel One may be helping to widen an already dangerous gap in our society. |
Speech to the Council
of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) that speaks of Channel One’s
form of indentured servitude.
