Channel One set up a mock election ("OneVote") that doubled as an advertising vehicle for a new dot.com company called DigitalBackPack.com and for a massive self-promotion for Channel One itself. Channel One made a major effort to get schoolchildren in schools that still have Channel One to sign up and vote in the election...
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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.
Mock Election Documents Channel One’s Stunning Decline
Contract With Schools Continues To Be Breached
Check out the length of Channel One’s show during September. They are still violating the contract they themselves wrote. 12 minutes is the maximum for a Channel One show. That is what schools signed up for. This wholesale violation of the contract may well make the contract null and void. It certainly makes it...
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PA Students Continue to Protest Channel One
Ken McNatt and other students in Oil City, Pennsylvania and other nearby cities are expanding their new organization, Students Against Commercialized Classrooms Organization (SACCO). As we reported earlier, Ken McKatt began SACCO to address Channel One’s presence in his high school. , “SACCO has already grown beyond my expectations. We have 23 total members....
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New Feature – Video Clips From Channel One
What exactly is Channel One trying to sell our students? Well, now you can see for yourself as you sit in front of your computer. You can now view specific Channel One commercials taken from actual tapes that came from America’s classrooms. It is often very difficult to get tapes of Channel One shows...
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Senator Brownback, What Are You Doing Working For Channel One?
NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release: For More Information Contact: Friday, September 29, 2000 Gary Ruskin (202) 296-2787 Jim Metrock (205) 612-3376 Brownback Carries Water for Company That Promotes Violent Entertainment to Schoolchildren Conservative and progressive organizations and scholars today criticized Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) for his work as "chief Senate apologist" for Primedia’s Channel...
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MO Student Begins Web Site Opposing Channel One in His School
A high school junior in Oak Grove, MO has started a web site that offers information for those who oppose Channel One. Jonathan Harm’s school has Channel One and ZapMe! Channel One officials have always thought that students were mindless robots that love anything that is on TV, especially if it takes away from...
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An Email to Channel One’s President Jim Ritts
Dear Mr. Ritts: Please instruct your sales department and Dr. Folkemer to immediately refrain from advertising violent entertainment on your show. As you know, Channel One has systematically marketed violent entertainment to schoolchildren. (Sorry, got the tapes and, as you know, the FTC invited me to show them your company’s ads for violent entertainment....
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Obligation Participates in Demonstration Against “Golden Marble” Awards in NYC
Shamelessly advertisers and marketers sat in the Grand Hyatt Hotel on September 14 and handed out "Golden Marble" awards to honor the best advertising to children. These advertisers also had two days of seminars on how to more effectively manipulate children and to get a large portion of their allowance money. It was no...
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GAO Study on Commercialism in Schools Prominently Mentions Channel One
On September 14, the General Accounting Office issued a report documenting the rapid rise of commercialism in public schools. Channel One’s type of commercialism is only one type, albeit, in our minds it is one of the most outrageous. The report which made news across the country is: GAO/HEHS-00-156 Public Education: Commercial Activities in...
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FTC Mentions Channel One in Historic Report on Marketing of Violent Entertainment to Children
“Target marketing to children of entertainment products with violent content is pervasive and aggressive,” FTC chairman Robert Pitofsky (September 11, 2000) You bet, Bob. Violent movies, violent television shows, violent music, violent video games. This is the world our children live in. The marketing of violent entertainment is big business, and that is certainly the case with Channel One....
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