On January 22, Channel One did its first story on the Inauguration of President Bush. Then, after the commercial break, a Channel One “reporter” named Derrick Shore does an extended story about a “Channel One high school” from Illinois (Marion Catholic HS, Chicago Heights, IL) that is marching in the Inaugural parade.
This is a silly report that takes up an incredible 2 minutes and 17 seconds of school time. This is typical of the junk stories Channel One serves up for its captive audience. During this story, Shore is shown asking students hard nosed questions such as “What they are wearing underneath to stay warm?” One young man says he is wearing long underwear and an extra pair of socks and has an electric hand warmer.
Shore then asks a young woman, “Have you eaten today?” She actually responds to this pretend-journalist.
“Bathroom breaks” are mentioned in the story and a band member tells the audience who furnished the parkas the band is wearing.
The Channel One “reporter” asks a band member, “Do you feel lucky to be here?” The student answers: “I think it is awesome to be playing for the President.”
Students who are forced to watch Channel One then get a glimpse of the band students on their bus. Shore then talks about the “enthusiastic” band parents who are shown along the parade route gleefully filming their children marching.
Jim Metrock said, “This would be laughable except for the cost. Each student lost 2 minutes of school time to this childish story. If you multiply 4 million* students by 2 minutes, you have 15 years of lost time that could have, and should have, been devoted to learning. That is what taxpayers paid for. They never wanted Channel One robbing their children of time. The fact that this injury is spread out among millions of students does not lessen its sting. In a two minute time span, our country lost a lot of potential to a goofy TV show. If you know of a school that still has Channel One, you owe it to the students to raise your voice in protest until this nonsense is removed.”
*Obligation, based on its experience in Alabama, believes that 1/2 of Channel One’s eight million students it has under contract do not watch the show on any given day. Some schools show it less than they promised or they turn the sound off or they show it before school starts or not at all.
