Ralph Reed, Channel One’s longtime stooge, ran for Lt. Governor in Georgia. This
week he was defeated by a relatively unknown state senator in the Republican
primary. It was a race he should have easily won except for the friends he kept
and the money he made from Indian tribes and the casinos they ran. To a lesser
extent, his connection with Channel One News hurt him. Below is an article from
a very conservative group in Georgia that put up a website that urged Georgians
not to gamble on Reed. Other sites also criticized Reed for working with Channel
One.
Most certainly being a staunch supporter of Channel One News didn’t win Reed
any Georgia votes.
Being connected with something as unseemly as Channel One News will haunt Reed
if he ever tries for public office again. (He was beaten so badly in Georgia
(55% to 44%) that his political future is almost certainly over.)
So Jack Abramoff, Channel One’s go-to man on Capitol Hill, sits in disgrace
in a prison cell and Ralph Reed, Channel One’s "grassroots guy" since
1999, sits in disgrace in his Century Strategies office in Duluth, GA. He has
been unmasked as a fake conservative. He is now known as a man who will do
some fairly bad things for money. One of those bad things is helping Channel
One News
broadcast commercials for raunchy movies and junk food to a captive audience
of millions of schoolchildren.
___________________
IF YOU GAMBLED ON RALPH TO KEEP COMMERCIALS OUT OF THE CLASSROOM, YOU LOSE!
RALPH SAYS:
“
Because education is not ultimately about bricks, budgets, or bureaucracy. It
is about children. At their best, schools teach children to read, write, add,
subtract and know right from wrong so they can dream the American dream. We are
maximizing opportunity for all of our citizens, especially those who have been
denied it in the past.” (Ralph Reed, “Putting Children First,” 11/18/2005)
GEORGIANS LOSE:
According to media reports, Channel One "retained the services of former
Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed to convince social conservatives the
network is providing a valuable educational service." Channel One was
also a top client of close Reed associate and convicted felon Jack Abramoff,
paying
him hundreds of thousands of dollars in lobbying fees. (Washington Post, April
3, 1999. The New York Times, April 3, 2002.)
Many prominent health and education groups — as well as top pediatricians across
the U.S. — have also called for an end to advertisements in the classroom based
on the junk food ads they force children to watch and the time they take away
from instruction. Listed below are just a few of the organizations that oppose
Channel One and advertisements in the classroom:
• United Methodist Church
• The Southern Baptist Convention
• American Family Association
• Family Research Council
• Focus on the Family
• Eagle Forum
• The National PTA
• National Association of State Boards of Education
• The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
• U.S. Senator Richard Shelby
• Peggy O’Mara, Mothering Magazine
• Matt Damon, Actor
(Letter to Channel One: June 11, 2001)
"
The Channel One corporation has total control over the content of the programs;
the program cannot be halted once it starts, and it cannot be edited. Teachers
and parents have no practical way to view the program before the students see
it. The time devoted to Channel One adds up to six days of instruction a year
lost to schoolchildren. It’s time to call a halt to this exploitation of a captive
audience." (Phyllis Schlafly, President of Eagle Forum, "How K-III
Communications Buys a Captive Audience.")
"
I was shocked that Ralph Reed was behind it," says Asa Goode, a Republican
political consultant in Birmingham, Alabama. Goode got a telephone call not long
ago, he says, from a fellow Alabama conservative. "They told me they would
pay me to write an editorial supporting Channel One. And I’m anti-Channel One!" (Ruth
Coniff, The Progressive, May 2000).
Channel One "promotes crass entertainment, like the movie “Monkeybone” …
It promotes high-sugar junk food and soda pop to children. It even promoted “Dude,
Where’s My Car?,” which is a movie that glorifies the drug use
of two marijuana smoking teenagers. Schools ought to be a refuge from the noxious
influences of our commercial culture. (Gary Ruskin, Testimony on Channel One
before Texas State Board of Education, September 13th, 2002).
WHY IT MATTERS:
Although Ralph says he supports a strong educational system with a focus on
traditional values, he has accepted large sums of money to lobby on behalf
of Channel One.
Channel One is a television company that broadcasts advertisements and other
programs into public school classrooms. The network has outraged parents who
work hard to limit what their children watch at home, and must then sit by
while they are literally forced to watch those same harmful messages in class.
It’s
no surprise that numerous pro-family groups call Channel a "device to disseminate
sexual messages and other harmful information to the nation’s children." (Washington
Post, April 3, 1999).
