Nation's Largest Protestant Denomination On Record Against Channel One in Schools

Child Advocacy Group Praises Southern Baptist Condemnation of Channel One

June 16, 1999 (Atlanta, GA) (Birmingham, AL) A Birmingham, AL-based child advocacy group praises the Southern Baptist Convention for passing a resolution that calls for "school administrators and community leaders to work to remove Channel One" from public schools. 11,000 messengers from all across the country voted in favor of the resolution at the National Convention in Atlanta today.

Obligation, Inc. has been raising awareness of Channel One's commercial exploitation of schoolchildren for several years. Channel One is a marketing company that loans a school system a TV network in exchange for a contractual promise to show their news show, with commercials, at least 90% of all school days in at least 80% of all classrooms. That means a child must be shown the TV show at least one hour a week or 31 hours a year (one full instruction week of school).

Jim Metrock president of Obligation said, "The Southern Baptist have passed a powerful and unambiguous resolution that will be of great benefit to millions of schoolchildren. They stand with virtually every major educational organization in opposition to classroom commercials."

The American Association of School Administrators, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the National PTA, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the National Association of State Boards of Education are a few of the organizations that oppose classroom advertising.

"Everyone should stop and listen to what the Southern Baptist are saying about maintaining the integrity of our classrooms," said Metrock. "The nation owes these hard-working convention "messengers" a big thanks, especially Bobbie Patray, of Nashville, who proposed the hard-hitting resolution."

Following is the full text of the Southern Baptist Convention resolution:

Resolution No. 8 - On Channel One

WHEREAS, the nurture of children is the most important calling of the
family, deserving the support of society; and
WHEREAS, Popular culture increasingly bombards impressionable children
with images of sex and violence; and
WHEREAS, Those images of sex and violence are generally communicated
through movies, music, video games, and television; and
WHEREAS, Schools have traditionally been a refuge from some of the
noxious influences of our culture, especially from the marketing
strategies of purveyors of popular culture; and
WHEREAS, State compulsory attendance laws compel children to attend
schools; and
WHEREAS, approximately eight million students, grades 6-12, are forced
to watch the Channel One Network, a daily twelve-minute television
program, containing advertising targeting those age groups; and
WHEREAS, Channel One advertising includes promotion of junk foods; chat
rooms and "Personal Ads" message boards; movies such as Eddie Murphy's
Holy Man and Adam Sandler's The Water Boy, both of which are
age-inappropriate for the students who see these ads; movies with
sexually suggestive content such as Never Been Kissed; movies with
ultra-violent themes such as The Mummy and Quest; television shows like
Steven King's The Shining and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; sexualized
magazines like Seventeen; and has broadcast the music of groups known
for their violent and sexually explicit lyrics such as the satanic rock
band, Marilyn Manson; and
WHEREAS, In most cases Channel One is shown to children without the
knowledge or consent of their parents; and
WHEREAS, Channel One consumes one hour per week of schools'
instructional time, the content over which classroom teachers, school
administrators, and community leaders have no control.
Be it therefore RESOLVED that we, the messengers to the Southern Baptist
Convention, meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, June 15-16, 1999, find the
advertising and commercial use of Channel One unfortunate and an
erroneous educational strategy; and
Be it further RESOLVED that we urge parents to investigate whether their
children's schools are using Channel One and to seek effective ways to
protect their children from the advertising assault of the network; and
Be it further RESOLVED that we call on school administrators and
community leaders to work to remove Channel One from their school
districts; and
Be it finally RESOLVED that we implore schools that decide to maintain a
contract with Channel One to show the program only to children whose
parents have given fully informed consent in writing.

<-----------------resolution ends here-------------------->