Does your school still have Channel One News?
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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.

Two Shocking New Ads on Channel One

December 9, 1999

The Channel One executives approved a new provocative ad for schoolchildren. Many ads on Channel One are sexually provocative. There is nothing new there, but the latest Schick female razor commercial sends a very powerful immoral message to children. The commercial starts off showing a older girl saying, “When you live with guys, you learn all kinds of...
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Ballabon and Folkemer Approve Second James Bond Ad for Kids

December 8, 1999
Ballabon and Folkemer Approve Second James Bond Ad for Kids

  BORDER=”0″ ALT=”This gun’s for you.” WIDTH=”200″ HEIGHT=”311″ NATURALSIZEFLAG=”3″>Shameless Channel One keeps pounding away at our children. We have now seen the second ad (November 19, 1999) for the violent and sexually-charged James Bond movie. This time Channel One ran a commercial that tells the children that critics love this violent movie and that they (the children) need...
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First Channel One Ad for a Recording Artist

December 8, 1999
First Channel One Ad for a Recording Artist

  border=”0″ width=”131″ height=”433″ naturalsizeflag=”3″> SIZE=”-1″ FACE=”Arial”>< Jessica Simpson’s Commercial for her debut CD was mandatory viewing by children in schools with Channel One. Times must be hard at Channel One’s Madison Avenue headquarters. For the first time, to our knowledge, Channel One has run a formal commercial for a recording artist. The singer is Jessica Simpson....
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Who Is Jeff Ballabon?

December 4, 1999

  Mr. Ballabon recently flew from New York to Alabama to meet with conservative legislators and other influential people in an attempt to win friends for Channel One. Mr. Ballabon failed to tell the Alabama citizens he meet with that the product he was pushing was outlawed in public schools in his home state of New York. He must...
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Ask Dr. Folkemer

November 28, 1999

Channel One – Peddlers of Despair   Ask Dr. Folkemer   Channel One, the marketing company with headquarters on Madison Avenue (by the way, their product called Channel One News is outlawed in all public schools in their own home state of New York) and studio in Hollywood USA has come up with another effort to look...
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Old Story, But Chilling – Channel One Ran Story on Jeffrey Dahmer in Classrooms

October 28, 1999

“It made me think about all of the terrible things my kids were exposed to in public school over the years – and none of us parents could ‘censor’ any of it. For instance, I was livid when Channel 1 broadcast news of Jeffrey Dahmer’s hideous murders directly into my kids’ classroom several years ago. I had censored...
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Channel One Paid Preston Gates Lobbying Firm $820,000 in First Half of 1999

October 27, 1999

October 27m 1999 – National Journal Reports Channel One Paid Preston Gates Lobbying Firm $820,000 in First Half of 1999 October 27, 1999 – National Journal Reports Channel One Paid Preston Gates Lobbying Firm $820,000 in First Half of 1999 $820,000 doesn’t go as far as it use to. Over the years, Channel One has paid...
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Channel One Advertises Unbelievably Violent Movie to Captive Audience of Children

October 25, 1999
Channel One Advertises Unbelievably Violent Movie to Captive Audience of Children

BORDER=”0″ WIDTH=”200″ HEIGHT=”175″ NATURALSIZEFLAG=”3″> Last week, Channel One continued their marketing of violence to America’s youth. (Past crimes include: Ads for “The Quest”, “New York Undercover”, “The Shining”, “The Mummy”; reviews of “Kiss the Girls”, “Scream2”; and music on the in-school TV show from groups known for their violent lyrics: Bone Thugs and Marilyn Manson) Children in schools that...
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Who is Left at Channel One?

October 19, 1999

We said 1999 would be a disastrous year for Channel One and it has been much worse than even we forecasted. According to an Educational Marketer article, Channel One’s president, Kevin McAliley, “abruptly resigned” several weeks ago. In early summer, PRIMEDIA’s Chairman, William Reilly, offered his resignation which was no resignation at all. He was given the boot by...
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Hey, Channel One! Don’t Mess With Texas.

October 11, 1999
Hey, Channel One! Don’t Mess With Texas.

From Jim Metrock: "Don’t Mess With Texas" is the bold unofficial motto of the great state of Texas. Obligation shared a booth with the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education at the Texas Association of School Boards convention this past weekend. We distributed a wealth of information about Channel One to school board members and...
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