From Jim Metrock:
Two of last year’s three anchors are not returning to Channel One News. Tony Anderson and Chris Browne didn’t make it one full year.
The two new anchors are Steven Lisowski and Justin Finch. They join Jessica Kumari back for her second year.
We don’t know if Channel One fired Mr. Anderson and Mr. Browne or if they both realized that Channel One News is a doomed company that could kill their careers. If they were dismissed by Channel One, I could think of few things more humiliating. If Channel One News doesn’t want you, that’s pretty bad.
Steven Lisowski, aka Steven Fabian, has little reporting experience. Channel One mentions in his short bio that he interviewed Will Ferrell and Jack Black. (Well, right there is more than enough to secure a paying job at Channel One.) He also hosted "Primetime with Steve Lisowski" on the Allegheny College TV station. I understand his show was like The Dating Game.
Justin Finch has some some experience with News 12 a local cable network in the boroughs of New York City.
All three of these anchors should be ashamed of themselves for making money off the exploitation of a captive audience of schoolchildren, but Mr. Finch should feel the most uncomfortable. He knows, or should know, that Channel One is disproportionately found in schools in lower income areas. Channel One’s onerous contract robs students of one week of potential instructional time each school year. Channel One demands that schools watch their TV show at least 90% of all school days or risk their TV sets being removed from classrooms. There are students, many of them African-American students, who do not graduate because their school made them watch TV 12 minutes a day, one hour a week, 33 hours a year, instead of reading. Some students are on the "bubble" and the massive amount of time Channel One demands as "rent" payment for the TV sets can be academically fatal to them.
When students watch movie ads on Channel One News, that puts money in the pockets of Ms. Kumari and Messrs. Finch and Lisowski, but it hurts schoolchildren.
These three want their day in the spotlight and they evidently don’t care who has to pay the price for their "fame."
Justin Finch, Jessica Kumari and Steven Lisowski want to make a lot of money the easy way. They don’t want to earn it. They know that Channel One has a captive audience that is compelled to watch them talk on TV. These wannabe anchors know their employer will rip the TVs off the classroom walls if the kids don’t watch. That’s why you don’t need a lot of experience to be hired as a Channel One News anchor. Matter of fact you don’t really need a pulse.
If Channel One decides on a lark to place a brick, yes a red brick, on three chairs in a row and do the whole TV show with voice-overs, the Channel One audience would remain numerical the same the next day. There would be no drop off in viewership. That’s because the quality of the show does not matter. Children are forced, or compelled, to watch these anchors. That is why the show is so cheaply done. Yes, there is some NBC footage that looks nice and there is a script for the anchors to read off a teleprompter, but there is no need for any journalism experience or even a high school diploma.
The only qualification one needs to be an anchor for Channel One News is to possess little regard for interrupting the educational process for nearly 6 million students.
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Above: Bios from http://www.channelone.com/onair/meet_channel_one_news_reporters/
