Channel One News is a youth marketing company whose main purpose is to get advertising to a captive audience of impressionable schoolchildren. The company loans a school TV equipment in exchange for the school’s contractual pledge to show students a daily, 12-minute, hyper-commercial, TV program called Channel One News. Students lose one hour a week of schools time, which equates to one lost week of instructional time (32 hours) per year. No educational organization endorses the use of Channel One News.
Channel One has fallen on very hard times. Once they claimed over 8 million students were under contract. Since 1997 they have continued to lose schools and now they claim “nearly five million” students and the true figure is probably lower.
In May 2014, publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt acquired Channel One from ZelnickMedia the makers of the ultra-violent Grand Thief Auto video game series. Houghton Mifflin did not disclose the purchase price.
At the end of 2014 most of Channel One’s full-paying advertisers have abandoned the program.
On today’s Channel One News show precious minutes are burned up with a trivial and inconsequential interview with another rock star that needs publicity for a his latest CD. Teddy Geiger’s 2006 CD "Underage Thinking" peaked at number 8 on the Billboard charts and is sinking like a ton of bricks. What to do?...
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Abramoff Probe Touches Primedia’s Channel One, MPA by Todd Shields OCTOBER 16, 2006 – Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates repeatedly sought payment from the Magazine Publishers of America and Primedia’s Channel One as they orchestrated lobbying campaigns in Washington, according to a Senate report. A former Channel One executive prodded Abramoff...
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On May 18, 2005, Channel One issued a very impressive sounding press release entitled, "Channel One Website Launches Government Information Resource." The press release can be found in our article "This Is Funny." Today, October 16, 2006, we revisited this "centralized listing of public services at the local, state and federal levels." Nothing has...
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MINORITY STAFF REPORT INVESTIGATION OF JACK ABRAMOFF’S USE OF TAX-EXEMPT ORGANIZATIONS PREPARED BY THE MINORITY STAFF OF THE COMMITTEE ON FINANCE UNITED STATES SENATE CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Chairman MAX BAUCUS, Ranking Member OCTOBER 2006 COMMITTEE ON FINANCE CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa, Chairman ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah TRENT LOTT, Mississippi OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine JON...
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From Jim Metrock: This is one of my favorite photos. This was taken on May 20, 1999 right after a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on Channel One. Ralph Nader, Pat Ellis and yours truly of Obligation, and Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum. We all opposed Channel One’s presence in schools. Channel One opposed...
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The U.S. Senate Finance Committee has published emails and letters that document how Channel One’s lead lobbyist and convicted felon Jack Abramoff used his connections and Channel One’s money to buy ‘support’ for the controversial company. The information in this Minority Staff report released yesterday, October 12, shows how Channel One tried to crush...
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Deconstructing Channel One News: The anchor welcomes students to the day’s broadcast. (Notice the window behind him.) The Channel One News show is constructed in a way to make students think that it is live when in fact it is 100% taped. Parts of it are taped the day before and parts are taped...
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This is a 2006-07 bell schedule for a middle school that considers itself a "Channel One school." Obligation’s Jim Metrock said, "I understand why this school is doing what they are doing. They don’t have the time to show 12 to 13 minutes of Channel One News in a busy school day. Only the...
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From the Madison Eagle (VA) newspaper. "A local thumbs up to Wetsel Middle School, which pulled the plug this year on the obnoxious Channel One system. The controversial TV offerings were aired in WMS classrooms, in part as a way for the students to stay up on current events. "The problem was, through...
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From the National PTA Newsletter (September 19, 2006). Children’s Advocates Ask Companies Not to Advertise on BusRadio or Channel One On Thursday, September 14, National PTA joined more than 100 organizations and children’s advocates in sending a letter to the 100 leading national advertisers and the top 50 advertising agencies, requesting that they...
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