See the March 20 article I Made a Mistake for a correction to this March 17 article.
From Jim Metrock:
It is good to see Channel One’s CEO getting out and about. The public doesn’t see Ms. CJ Kettler much, and you don’t see much of her even in this Channel One picture. I’m having a little fun with the “survive” question, but it is a true mystery how much longer will Strauss Zelnick of the parent company ZelnickMedia continue to believe Channel One has a profitable future.
I was a bit taken back when I saw this photo for the first time. You see “edu” on the podium which makes one think “education,” but why would Channel One’s CJ Kettler be moderating an education discussion?! Ms. Kettler is a marketer. She could moderate a panel dealing with obtaining personal information from young people, or how to sell high sugar drinks to middle school students, but education? Nah.
This picture from Channel One’s website shows Ms. Kettler heading up a panel of three other people. What educator would agree to be on a panel with Channel One’s CEO? Channel One is a pariah among educators and school administrators.
Looking a little closer it all made sense. One panelist was from NBC. NBC helped produce Channel One News for two years (2007-2009). One was from DoSomething.org a longtime advertiser on and partner of Channel One. The third panelist was from Common Sense Media. This is a company that appears to have no connection with Channel One. Common Sense Media should be offended by Channel One’s long history of advertising age-inappropriate movies and TV shows to children. Maybe Ms. Kettler told Mr. Lorion that they don’t advertise such things anymore.
This panel session could easily have been entitled “Channel One and Friends.” This was put together to help Channel One News reinvent itself. It was organized to put the best light on Channel One as possible.
No surprise that the organizer of this panel discussion was Ms. Alex Honeysett. Guess what she does? She works part-time at Channel One as their public relations/communications director. CJ Kettler is her boss.
