Oprah, You Shouldn’t Have

January 24, 2008

Ms. Winfrey should be donating money to rid schools of Channel One News, instead she gives the company her support.

It was shocking to see Oprah Winfrey on Channel One News uttering the words, "Hello Channel One Watchers, I’m Oprah…"

Does Ms. Winfrey know that students are COMPELLED to be "Channel One Watchers" because of a brutal, one-sided contract that school boards are required to sign in order to get the use of a TV network?

Ms. Winfrey obviously does not fully know about Channel One News. With her appearance she gives her implicit endorsement to Channel One’s commercial exploitation of schoolchildren. She obviously does not know the damage Channel One’s onerous contract has caused millions of children from lower-income school districts. Her appearance may be due to the encouragement of Lisa Ling a former Channel One anchor who is now a special correspondent for the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Obligation’s Jim Metrock said, "Channel One News is nothing but a 21st Century form of indentured servitude. Channel One will loan schools TV equipment ONLY if they sign a contract – a contract of indenture – that REQUIRES the students to watch a daily show with commercials for at least 90% of all school days. Channel One makes the school indebted to them by the loan of equipment and the debt is ‘paid off’ by students sacrificing their valuable school time to watch Channel One’s TV show. This contract of indenture is different than the 17th century type, because students and their schools can NEVER repay the debt. The TV equipment can NEVER be owned by the school. Channel One will not allow it. When children stop watching the Gatorade and Enlist in the Army commercials, then the TV sets are taken away. If Oprah knew she appeared on a program that makes it money off the backs of the neediest schoolchildren, she would be sick. Ms. Winfrey introduces a wonderful, uplifting story but there are other, more ethical ways to deliver a story like this to students. Let’s hope Ms. Winfrey does her homework before the next time Channel One asks her to come on their controversial show."

The Channel One Network has been enslaving schoolchildren from lower-income communities since its founding in April 1990.

An abstract of an early study by Dr. Michael Morgan at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst is below.

Channel One in the Public Schools – Widening the Gaps

1993

ERIC #: ED366688
Title: Channel One in the Public Schools: Widening the Gaps.
Authors: Morgan, Michael
Descriptors: Advertising; Closed Circuit Television; Economically Disadvantaged; Expenditure per Student; High Schools; Junior High Schools; Low Income Groups; Public Schools; School Business Relationship; Secondary Education; Secondary School Students; Social Problems; Tables (Data); Urban Schools Source: N/A
Peer-Reviewed: N/A
Publisher: N/A
Publication Date: 1993-10-13
Pages: 32
Pub Types: Reports – Research; Opinion Papers

Abstract: Channel One, an in-school television program, provides a centrally prepared, 10-minute daily newscast accompanied by 2 minutes of commercials. Several states ban Channel One because of concerns about providing advertisers such direct access to students within the walls of tax-supported public school buildings. This paper examines what kinds of schools and what sorts of communities choose to receive Channel One, and where Channel One fits in the pool of educational resources. The study used the data archives of Market Data Retrieval, which involves 17,344 public schools and covers grades 7 through 12, revealing some of the following items:
(1) Channel One is most often found in low income area schools, where it is often used instead of traditional educational materials when resources are scarcest;
(2) schools that can afford to spend more on their students are much less likely to utilize Channel One;
(3) Channel One is more often shown to the students who are least able to afford to buy all the products advertised, thus increasing a sense of alienation and frustration; and
(4) increasing commercialization of the culture and the schools suggests a shutting out of other voices and interests of the educational system. The study suggests that the use of Channel One in low-income, socioeconomically deprived schools presents an illusion of providing more and better educational facilities which only contributes to widening the societal gap. (Contains six references.) (GLR)

In 1998, a survey commissioned by the Alabama State Department of Education found schools that spent the most per pupil overwhelmingly did NOT have a contract with Channel One; schools that spent the least, overwhelmingly DID have a contract with Channel One.

From Channel One’s transcript 1/22/08

COMMERCIAL

CHRIS: SHE’S WON COUNTLESS AWARDS, HAS MILLIONS OF FANS AND HAS TRAVELED THE GLOBE IN SUPPORT OF EDUCATION. CHRIS: SHE’S OPRAH WINFREY AND TODAY, SHE’LL SHARE WITH US A SPECIAL STORY ABOUT ONE OF HER HEROES, DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. AND HOW HIS DREAM LIVES ON EVEN TODAY.

(SOT: Oprah Winfrey) “Hello Channel One Watchers, I’m Oprah and I am so proud to be able to share this special presentation of our Martin Luther King Jr. Special, "The Dream Lives." By now almost everybody has heard what’s become one of the most famous speeches in the world. When most people think of Martin Luther King Jr. they think of that I have a dream speech and it was the embodiment of what the civil rights movement meant. Today 45 years later in cities across America ordinary citizens are giving all they got to keep his dream alive.”

Then there is a story about a bus driver that takes children on motivational field trips. The story ends with Ms. Winfrey talking to "Channel One students."

Oprah Winfrey: “You are the first generation in history that has the chance to lead America to the full breath of Dr. King’s vision of compassion, equality.

Hold it!: Ms. Winfrey, students who are unfortunately in a school that still has Channel One News will lose the equivalent of one week of instruction each year having to watch this show. From sixth grade to their senior year, they will have lost SEVEN WEEKS OF SCHOOL TIME because of Channel One’s contract of indenture. Ms. Winfrey, most certainly because of this massive lost of time, there are many, many students that will drop out of school. There are students on the margin who could have continued their studies if they had that ONE HOUR A WEEK of school back. Can you imagine what would happen, Ms. Winfrey, if students spent an extra hour a week READING instead of being compelled to watch TV?

And I know you can do it and I have faith that you will. Dr. King never lived to see the many changes that those historic words that he said would inspire and now what he began is in your hands."

CHRIS: THAT DOES IT FOR CHANNEL ONE NEWS. THANKS SO MUCH FOR WATCHING, HOPE YOU GUYS HAVE A GREAT DAY.