It happens a lot. Today was just the latest violation. Channel One’s "News Standards" were published several years ago in an effort to ease growing concerns about the sloppy quality of their TV show. The new crew at Channel One now probably doesn’t even know about the policies the company created. Channel One vowed never...
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Does your school still have Channel One News?
Learn how to unplug
Houghton Mifflin/Channel One News
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.
Channel One Violates News Standards
Sex Up The Classroom!
A sultry singer is dressed in a skimpy two-piece outfit with see-through mesh on her legs and midriff. She struts down a runway surrounded by screaming fans. She falls on her knees and provocatively sings to the captive audience of schoolchildren forced to be shown Channel One. With moves that would challenge any belly...
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Who Is Elissa Schein?
In June, Channel One lost one of its best salesmen – Paul Folkemer. In 1998, Folkemer walked away from Benjamin Franklin Middle School where he was the principal to take a job with Channel One. Overnight, Folkemer went from worrying about the carpool line to a cushy job as "Vice President of Education" with...
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More on Channel One’s Move
An employee of Primedia told Obligation that 1440 Broadway is the headquarters for About.com. This is to be the new home for Channel One. About.com has fired so many people that they have some extra space for the Channel One gang. This further cements the relationship between Channel One and About.com. This will not...
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Golden Days Are Over
From Jim Metrock: It was a short paragraph tucked away in a "Channel One News Weekly Update" that is read by few: "ANNOUNCEMENT: Channel One’s New York offices are moving this week. As of Monday, October 8th, we will be located at 1440 Broadway, 17th Fl., NY, NY 10018. Our new phone #...
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Channel One Finally Shows Its Advertisers
For nearly six years Obligation has asked Channel One to tell the public what is being advertised to the children forced to watch the show. You can now see their program and its advertising at channelone.com. Unfortunately, Channel One is again playing games with the public. Channel One sends a different advertising feed to...
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Pat Ellis Receives Eagle Forum’s Leadership Award
Way to go, Pat! Obligation’s Pat Ellis was honored by Phyllis Schlafly at the Eagle Forum Council XXX in St. Louis on September 22. She was recognized for outstanding leadership in exposing and removing commercial exploitation from public schools. Mrs. Ellis has been fighting Channel One since 1994. No person has done more to...
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Time For Columbine To Remove Channel One
It has been several years since the terrible shootings at Columbine High School. Obligation has never mentioned the fact that Columbine students were under contract to Channel One and had to watch their TV show virtually every day of school. We had hoped that Columbine would clean up their school and remove the Channel One TV sets that...
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Middle School Teachers Are Urged To Turn Off Channel One
The terrible tragedy in our country underlines one of the most serious problems with Channel One. Channel One officials have always considered sixth grade students the same as high school seniors. In order to maximize their profits, Channel One delivers the same "newscast" to middle schools as they do high schools. To Channel One,...
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Channel One’s New Season Turns Into A Disaster
Channel One executives shot themselves in the foot again. This time they may not recover. Channel One’s offer of $500 to school teachers if they sign up a school for Channel One has backfired on them. State ethics officers, state attorneys general, and state superintendents in many states are now investigating Channel One. As of...
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