Here’s a photo of a bunch of kiddie marketers waving goodbye to their handful of fans. Their kiddie marketing company has gone out of business. Boo hoo.
All of these people, whether they worked in front of the camera or behind, were involved in the commercial exploitation of schoolchildren. They earned their paycheck by helping to convince students to buy Channel One-advertised products.
Yes, all these people look so nice and kind. They have wonderful smiles and look like they would make a good friend, but they all knew or should have known what they were doing was wrong.
“But all news programs have advertising.”
That’s not a valid defense of Channel One News. With Channel One, the ads were the whole point of its existence. The ads came first and the other content of the show was “wrapped around” the ads to make them go down easier. Don’t confuse what Channel One News was doing on taxpayer time with the nightly news on your home TV.
Channel One News has always been an advertising gimmick. All these people in the picture knew what they were getting into when they were hired by Channel One. If they wanted to get into legitimate journalism they would have gone elsewhere.
The president of Channel One News has never been a journalist, has never been an educator. No, the company has always been led by an advertising or marketing person. After all the company was founded by an advertising person, Chris Whittle.
So “so long” Channel One people. Here’s hoping all of you will get out of the school marketing world and find a legit news job. If that happens, it will indeed be news worthy.
