Eileen Wu (Columbia), Alexander Marquardt (Georgetown), Meka
Nichols (Harvard Law)
Channel One News limps into another school year after a disastrous 2005-06 season. After losing four of their reporters (Errol Barnett, Seth Doane, Melissa Knowles and Rich DeMuro), the company has hired these three to join Cali Carlin.
At one time, when Channel One News was rolling in money from advertising candy bars and raunchy movies and TV shows, they had eight reporters. Now like their revenue, the number of reporters has been cut in half.
The new reporters are very smart. Eileen Wu has a master’s degree from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. Alexander Marquardt is a Georgetown graduate. Meka Nichols has a master’s degree from Northwestern’s University AND a law degree from Harvard.
What are these people doing at Channel One News?
Have none of them read about Channel One’s exploitation of minority students? With all their education did they just overlook the fact that Channel One’s is found disproportionately in lower-income areas of our country? These kids need that extra hour of schooling more than any and these smart reporters and their new employer rob them of this time in exchange for some antiquated TV equipment (which the school will never have a chance to own). Didn’t they take a few minutes to “Goggle” the phrase “Channel One” and find out that parents and educators across the country detest Channel One?
What is a person with a Harvard Law degree doing making money off the backs of schoolchildren who are compelled, under force of contract, to watch the show that pays her paycheck? As long as the advertisers have the captive audience, they will make money off these children and Ms. Nichols and the others will be paid. The question is – how well will Ms. Nichols, Ms. Wu, Mr. Marquardt and Ms. Carlin sleep?
There will always be some young people who either for fame or cash will seek employment at this company. You can’t totally blame them. We don’t know what they are pulling in. They may be making more money than they ever could working for a legitimate news gathering organization or for a law firm.
Obligation calls these four the “Skeleton Crew.” When a manufacturing plant is shut down, the company will usually have a “skeleton crew” to maintain the facility. In C1’s case, the company is still up and running, but they are frantically trying to cut costs to remain afloat. In the new “phased-down” version of Channel One, there is no need to have reporters covering a lot of stories. With one half of the reporters sacked or quitting, Channel One will obviously be able to cover only one half of the stories they were able to before. With the dismissal of their production people, the company now must rely on a relatively small outfit called TeamPeople to do their production.
Revenue has taken a big blow under the new CEO Judy Harris. If Ms. Harris can’t get her act together, there will be more cuts and bigger changes at Channel One.
What students will see this year (if they are watching) is one cheaply produced story after another. The company moved to Washington DC so they will have some nice backdrops for their reporters. A story about President Bush meeting with his advisors will be introduced by a C1 reporter standing in front of the White House. This will give the impression that Channel One is covering the story, when in fact they are using footage of the actual meeting from legitimate news organizations and are inserting a prefacing shot of the C1 reporter reading a few lines from a cue card in front of the White House. The illusion of real reporting.
Let’s hope members of Channel One’s Skeleton Crew open their eyes soon to the costs students are paying for Channel One. When they visit a school where few classes are reading at grade level yet have to carve out one hour a week to view their TV show, then maybe one, two or all of the Skeleton Crew may tap into their conscience and realize they aren’t as smart as they think they are.
