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Jewel’s appearance on Channel One was timed for today’s release of her newest CD. |
The loss of advertisers has cause Channel One to sell air time to companies that want to promote singers, television shows and movies. This is a big gamble for Channel One since it openly violates the contract with schools. This could have legal repercussions for a company already in big trouble.
Channel One wrote the contracts they required school boards to sign. It was Channel One that put unambiguous language in the contract that limited their commercial time to two minutes. Today’s program is shocking in its total disregard of the contract.
You can see today’s show by going to www.channelone.com.
Atlantic Records arranged for Jewel to appear during the entire Channel One show today. She guest hosted beside Channel One anchor Derrick Shore. Shore, who makes no attempt to even pretend to be a journalist, has no problem helping Jewel push her CD. Channel One wasted considerable time promoting Jewel. They even took time to show an old clip of Jewel pushing her 1995 CD on Channel One. The captive audience of schoolchildren heard parts of at least four new songs from the Jewel CD.
Channel One is not considering the guest host time as commercial time which it is. Channel One is considerably over the two minute limit. Today’s show is not the first time this violation of the contract has happened, but it is the most extensive breach of the contract we have seen.
On the Channel One web site, children can read an interview with Jewel. They can also enter a contest so they can win an autographed CD from Jewel.
It is interesting that Channel One, the company that bills itself as the only source of news for many children, has steadfastly refused to use their web site to broadcast the news to children during afterschool hours, over the weekend and during summer vacation. They have the capability to stream their broadcast on the web but don’t. But if you go to channelone.com you can see a streaming video of a Channel One anchor conducting a question and answer session with, you guessed it, Jewel.
Channel One has found a new source of revenue by selling guest host slots to movie and TV stars and recording artists, but it might result in more legal problems than Channel One can handle. State Departments of Education and state Attorneys General may not be amused with this company that violates its own contract so frequently and with such arrogance.
