Barack Obama

Barack Obama is the junior U. S. Senator from Illinois. Yesterday, Channel One ran a lengthy report on his recent visit to Africa. It was puzzling why Channel One’s producers chose this story for their broadcast. There were so many other more newsworthy stories to cover on August 30 when this show was taped. Five other headline stories could have been reported on in the time it took to leisurely follow Senator Obama’s trip back to South Africa and Kenya.

The report which you can read and also see below is not a news story as much as it is a tribute. Channel One’s voice-over says the Senator is being treated as a "rock star." We hear from the Senator himself how he was motivated to get into politics. We are told that Kenya is where his father was born. We are told that his wife and daughters were on the trip also. The Senator’s campaign media people could not have produced a more flattering political commercial for him.

Why? Why cover one Senator’s oversea trip? With so many Senators doing various travel, both in the U.S. and out, during this August recess, why pick a junior, albeit up-and-coming, Senator from Illinois?

The answers comes if you watch all the way to the end of the video clip. On the show, the report on Senator Obama’s African trip was shown first, then we are told that the Senator wanted to welcome Channel One to Washington DC and a short clip of the Senator is shown. The folks at Channel One would argue, we think unsuccessfully, that Senator Obama’s "welcoming" was nothing special or that it was "just a nice thing to do." Hogwash. U.S. Senators don’t film "welcoming" comments for every new company in Washington DC. They certainly don’t film such things for such a controversial company like Channel One. This was politically motivated. We think there was something in this for the Senator (very positive story that will be shown to up to seven million future voters) and of course there was something in it for Channel One ("See we aren’t that stinky. Barack Obama likes us.")

Senator Obama could not have filmed his "Welcome, Channel One" remarks after his trip because he was still overseas when this report was aired. Channel One’s anchor acknowledges it was done before he left. Does this timing make a difference?

What Channel One has done has violated its own news standards. There is a connection here and there should be no connection at all. The Senator agrees to help Channel One’s awful public image by lending his celebrity status to the show. Senator Obama filmed a commercial for Channel One News. It is not just a "welcoming" comment, it is more. If you like the Senator, then by transference, you will like Channel One. This is why sports stars are paid so much to hold up a product they don’t use.

Above: Before he goes to Africa, Senator Obama agrees to do a "celebrity endorsement" for the controversial Channel One program.

Below: Guess what? After the Senator helps out Channel One, Channel One decides to feature a lengthy and very flattering report on the Senator’s African trip.

Watch the video.

Does the Senator know that Channel One is found disproportionately in lower-income communities? Does he know that these children are required to be shown Channel One at least 90% of school days? We hope he doesn’t know these things. His staff failed him in allowing him to be tied to this controversial company.

Millions of schoolchildren are indentured servants to Channel One’s onerous contract. There has to be a lot of young people who will not graduate high school because they needed just a little more instructional time, a little more help. What if these young people that needed a little more help had had just a little more school time? What if their school had refused Channel One and had one hour a week of extra school time each week? Would an extra 32 hours of instructional time (EACH YEAR) as opposed to TV-time had made a difference? Of course it would have. The ritzy suburban schools don’t waste their time with Channel One, but too many lower-income urban and rural schools do.

It is obvious that Senator Obama is caring person. If he knew Channel One’s business model and what it has advertised to children, he would, we firmly believe, be outraged. The bottom line with this situation is the Senator’s staff didn’t do their homework.