Channel One News under Kent Haehl and Paul Folkemer has become an advertising funhouse. Every part of the show is up for sale. Respectability? Forgetaboutit. Chanenl One appears to be in survival mode.
Here’s an actress in a new movie It’s Kind of a Funny Story coming out on Friday, October 8. Channel One News, without permission from schools, allows the actress to begin the TV “news” show on October 6. The name of the movie is mentioned of course and is also prominently displayed on the classroom TV screen. Later in the show, Ms. Roberts gets more taxpayer-funded school time to plug the movie. See also You Again.
Young visitors to Channelone.com will also see advertising for the movie. The ad below is made to look like a feature story. Channel One News nowhere tells kids that what they are reading is an advertisement. That’s deceptive. That’s underhanded. That’s Channel One News.
Above: This movie like many of Channel One News-endorsed movies is age-inappropriate for the largest portion of Channel One’s captive audience – middle school students. The movie is – and this is no joke – a comedy about a clinically depressed teen who has suicidal thoughts. How funny is that? Evidently it’s hilarious to Haehl and Folkemer because they approved this movie for their high school and middle school audiences plus even younger children who see all the ads on their website.
We leave you will a frame from the movie trailer that Channel One News provides children on their website. This may also be shown on the Channel One News show in classrooms but we don’t know for sure because Channel One censors all their commercials on the web rebroadcast of their show. You see the clinically depressed teen committing suicide by falling off a building. Since it is only a quick cut in the trailer, we assume it is a dream sequence. Quite a teen comedy Channel One News is promoting.
