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.
From Jim Metrock: Jere Beasley is easily the most prominent attorney in Alabama. He has built Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis and Miles into a 300-person, nationally renowned law firm. When Mr. Beasley speaks, people listen. He speaks monthly through the Jere Beasley Report. This is not a typical law firm newsletter. This is a major magazine that...
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Date Audience Schools Classrooms Documentation 1998 “more than 12,000” 1999 “more than 8 million” “more than 12,000” “440,000” 1999 “8.1 million teenagers” 2000 “over 8 million” “12,000” “400,000” 2002 “nearly 8 million teens” “over 350,000” 2003 “nearly 8 million” “nearly 12,000” July 2005 “over 7.7 million” “over 350,000” Dec. 20, 2005 “more than...
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In a recent web article, Channel One’s CEO Judy Harris responded to questions about Channel One’s long history of advertising junk food and soft drinks to students. She said junk food ads that Channel One continues to run are “balanced out” by feature stories about healthy eating and living. From the Parents Action web article: “Last year...
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Those are the words of Dean Nelson the Chairman and CEO of Channel One’s parent company, PRIMEDIA. What he is talking about is Channel One News. He said this at the Credit Suisse First Boston 2005 Global Week Conference held in New York City on December 6. You can hear his comments in full context at this link...
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From Jim Metrock: Those familiar with Channel One News know their strange practice of allowing actors and musicians to become official news anchors on their in-school TV show. It becomes stranger when Channel One’s news department violates its own published news standards and lets these guest anchors plug their latest TV show, movie, CD or whatever they need help...
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Screen shot of today’s commercial shown in middle and high schools. It’s getting near Christmas and toy and game commercials are filling up Channel One’s’ ad spots. Companies like Nintendo like the captive audience that Channel One claims it can deliver. On today’s show, students watched a commercial that offers them a “free” video game if...
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Student’s parents may sue over fainting incident By Amanda Falcone, Record-Journal staff WALLINGFORD — The parents of a Moran Middle School student are threatening to sue the Board of Education, claiming she fainted and hit her head after her teacher made her stand in a hot classroom in September. Taylor Nardi, 11, was watching News Channel One...
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We just found the above information on Forbes.com. This is incredible. It is an indication of the massive amounts of money Channel One News siphons off from public schools. Although he had a few other responsibilities, Jim Ritts’ main job was president of Channel One News. This report was for fiscal year 2004. A year that was not...
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From Jim Metrock: I’ve always liked Rome. Rome, Georgia, not Italy. (I’ve never been to Italy.) When I was in the wire business back in the 80’s, I had a lot of great customers in Rome. It’s a beautiful little town in a scenic part of northwest Georgia. So it was sad to come to Rome this...
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Above: A scene from the movie Channel One advertised to middle school students. This is Angel. He has just taken off his wig. Angel is a drag queen, cross-dresser, transvestite (take your pick) and has a prominent role in Rent. Channel One News believes that this is appropriate content for middle school kids. Obligation doesn’t. In the movie, Angel...
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