March 11, 1998 (Birmingham, AL) FBI Director Louis Freeh testified before a Senate hearing yesterday that child predators are a growing problem on children’s web sites and chat rooms. A local child advocacy group says that Alabama children are being needlessly exposed to Internet dangers by the controversial in-school TV show, Channel One. Obligation...
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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.
School Systems Urged To Temporarily Halt Channel One Because of Child Predator Dangers – State Superintendent And Attorney General Help Sought
Channel One’s Guide On How To Cheat On Book Reports
We were tipped off to this by a teacher in Canada. (Our friends to the north are being plagued with a Channel One clone called YNN.) Channel One published this on their official web site. It attempts to be humorous and at the same time instructional. The problem: You have a book report due tomorrow and you haven’t read...
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Lawrence Central High School, Indianapolis, IN, Article On Channel One
(Article removed to protect privacy of students)
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Students See Baby Shot In The Face On Channel One
A distraught mother in Utah wrote us that her 12-year-old son was traumatized by a violent segment on Channel One. She said that on January 28 and 29, her son watched a sniper put the cross hairs of a rifle on a baby’s face and then a shot rang out. The boy has a new baby sister, the...
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“Channel One Practices Raise Tough Questions”
SIZE=”-1″ FACE=”Arial”>Cover of “Alabama School Boards” magazine for December 1997. “Alabama School Boards” is the monthly magazine published by the Alabama Association of School Boards. They asked Obligation to write an article about the controversial Channel One TV show and web site. Obligation hopes that articles like this will encourage Alabama school boards to quickly remove this marketing device from our...
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Chris Farley Death Story Eats Up Two Minutes of School Time
Channel One’s in-school TV show spent two minutes covering the death of and paying tribute to the comedic actor Chris Farley. It was considered a major story by Channel One on this Monday morning’s broadcast. Jim Metrock, Obligation president, said, “This is typical Channel One. They don’t care if they waste a student’s time,...
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News About Channel One – Aug – Dec 1997
Obligation, Inc. – Channel One Is Bad News For Kids To 1998 Press Releases and News About Channel One Press Releases and News About Channel One – 1997 December 15, 1997 – Mississippi Baptist Christian Action Commission Newsletter Addresses Channel One Concerns November 27, 1997 – Channel One May Have Advertised Adult Soap Opera...
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Channel One Reviews Explicit-Content CDs for Children
Ever since we started monitoring Channel One’s web site (November 1996), Channel One has been involved with ranking or reviewing current music for its audience. Their Playlist tells kids what are the hottest groups in the country. Web visitors would vote for their favorites and Channel One would publish the results. Marilyn Manson, Bone Thugs and Harmony...
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Mississippi Baptist Christian Action Commission Newsletter Addresses Channel One Concerns
The problems with Channel One were the focus of an article appearing in "Salt & Light" a newsletter of the Mississippi Baptist Christian Action Commission. The article, "Channel One – Captive Audience in the Classroom", mentioned many of Obligation’s findings and research, along with listing the numerous organizations that oppose Channel One. The article...
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Channel One May Have Advertised Adult Soap Opera To Children
It appears that ABC’s steamy "Port Charles" soap opera was advertised to Channel One’s captive audience of eight million schoolchildren at least once this year. We are awaiting a response from Channel One’s Madison Avenue headquarters, so we have to couch our words with qualifiers. This is what is known: Teachers in several states,...
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