Lobbyist Jeff Ballabon. His underhanded tactics, in coordination with Jack Abramoff, on behalf of Channel One News, helped cause Channel One to lose much of its audience.
“It’s hard to express how unconcerned we are that this is going to impact us negatively.”
April 15, 2000 – Channel One’s Jeff Ballabon quoted in the Harrisburg, PA Patriot-News, referring to the efforts of conservative and liberal groups and scholars to oppose Channel One News.
Things started going down hill for Channel One in the late 90’s when Mr. Ballabon was hired as a lobbyist for the youth marketing company.
Channel One’s student audience in 2000 was 8.1 million. Since 2000, Channel One has had a net loss of schools each year. In 2011 that audience was “nearly 5.5 million.” Channel One lost 1/3 of its schools in that time period.
