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From
Jim Metrock:
In 1999, the National Journal reported Channel One Network paid the Preston Gates lobbying firm in Washington DC $820,000. That figure represented only the first half of the year.
That is a good example of the lavish spending habits of Channel One in the 90’s. This was the Golden Era for Channel One News. Management had adopted a very relaxed policy when it came to signing up advertisers. They weren’t very discriminating and that helped fill the broadcast with an abundance of full-paying advertisers.
When 20th Century Fox was planning its advertising campaign for its 2000 movie "Dude, Where’s My Car?," many thought that Channel One News would never carry an ad for the movie. The film was a drug comedy that normalized drug use among young people. The two main characters were "stoners" who are so "wasted" they can’t remember where they left their car.
Channel One News executives not only approved the movie ad for teen and preteen audiences, they ran an intense campaign with varying commercials that contained different content from the movie to keep the captive audience of schoolchildren interested in the upcoming "Dude" movie. To Channel One News, the fact that the movie normalized drug use was irrelevant. It appeared that money was the all that mattered.
Other outrageous movies and TV shows were advertised to students and Channel One’s bank account grew bigger and bigger.
The papers were already reporting an obesity crisis among children in the late 90’s but that didn’t matter to the "go-go" execs at Channel One. Hostess wanted to increase their sales of Twinkies and Hostess Cupcakes to Channel One’s teen and preteen audience. Channel One approved a massive and probably very effective ad campaign for both products. Mars, Inc. ran ads on Channel One News for Snickers, Twix, and M&Ms. Junk food commercials ran an average of once a day for five years on Channel One starting in 1996.
It was shameless, but it made a lot of people at Channel One News wealthy.
They had so much money they hired a lobbyist in our home state of Alabama. Martin Christie is that lobbyist. He has conveyed Channel One’s money to members of the state board of education, the Alabama legislature and other influential people in our state. Christie continues to maintain his lifestyle with Channel One payments. These payments like the ones to DC lobbying firms have helped deplete the Channel One bank account.
In just a few weeks, Channel One News will be fully moved to its new production studio run by TeamPeople. Channel One can no longer afford to produce its own show. If they only had a fraction of what they recklessly paid to Jack Abramofff of Preston Gates and Martin Christie and other influence buyers.
