Updated May 16, 2012:
From Jim Metrock:

The “Yuck Factor” when it comes to Channel One at Warner Middle School has just soared.  A parent sent me a link to the school handbook where the school’s devotion to the hyper-commercial Channel One TV show is clear.

So here’s the deal at Warner Middle School in Xenia, Ohio: A student must be sitting at his or her desk when the 7:30 tardy bell rings. If a student is late, he or she must report to the Counselors’ Office to be admitted. After 3 tardies in a 9-week period students start getting detention.

Sounds like a no-nonsense middle school that values school time. Yet… the school day starts with a “Home Base” non-instructional period that is 15 minutes long. How long does it take to check off the attendance report if all students are required to be “seated” at 7:30? It is obvious that this non-academic period is made artificially longer than it needs to be so the school can accommodate the hyper-commercial and very controversial Channel One TV show. (Although CBS News allows production of the program in their studios, Channel One is a youth marketing company that has always been run by advertising and marketing executives. It is owned by Alloy Media and Marketing which is in turn owned by Zelnick “Grand Thief Auto” Media. Channel One “wraps” themselves with a thin layer of news so they can get their advertising to a captive audience of schoolchildren.)

I can only imagine Mike Early the Warner principal walking into a Home Base period to see the students watching a movie trailer for a movie coming to Xenia theaters that Friday. He may smile and walk on and miss the irony of the situation, but parents won’t – if only more Xenia parents knew this was going on and has been going on for years.

So hurry up Warner students and get to your desks so you can catch up on a little bit of yesterday’s news (the show is taped) and a lot of entertainment news so you can plan your weekend. Today May 16 Warner Middle School students heard music from and saw a commercial for a rock band called The Royalty.  ”Gee, Principal Early, you’re swell!”

Where is the Xenia Community School Board when you need them?

Dr. Deborah Piotrowski is the Xenia Community district superintendent. She allows commercials to be shown in Warner Middle School classrooms.

From Jim Metrock:

This time a school in mid-Ohio gets nominated for the Wastin’ Time & Tax Dollar$ Award. Movie commercials and other commercials have been a part of the Warner Middle School school day for years. I recently stopped by Warner to see if Mike Early the principal would talk to me about his school’s use of Channel One. He was at a hearing (my sympathy). I tried to speak with Angie Reed the media specialist but the central office was very defensive when I mentioned “Channel One.” They didn’t want me to speak with anyone about Channel One.

I left my card and asked for Principal Early to call me. Of course, he didn’t. Still if Warner wins the award I would be happy to come back to Xenia and give the school the $250 prize.

From a Channel One sales presentation. Overstatements like this are hilarious considering the number of schools that have been dropping Channel One News.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“I am appalled by this effort (Channel One’s effort to bring commercials into AL secondary school classrooms). I urge you not enter this or any other agreement which subjects students to commercial advertising.”

Wayne Teague, Alabama State Superintendent of Education in a letter to district superintendents – September 27, 1989

Channelone.com replay of May 10 program blacks out two sections of its report on President Obama changing his position on gay marriage. What did Channel One show students that it won’t allow parents to see?

Channel One’s obsession with covering gay rights issues becoming a problem for middle and elementary school administrators.

One of several images of gay weddings shown on the middle school broadcast of Channel One News on May 10, 2012.

Screen shot from Channel One News May 10, 2012.

Lesbian embrace on Channel One News TV screen - May 10, 2012.

Channel One News has never used this excuse to black out content on its web replay of its classroom TV show. This was used twice on May 10, 2012 to prevent parents and the public from seeing even more (more controversial?) images of gay weddings. Shouldn't parents be able to see all Channel One's report on gay marriage?

VIDEO See for yourself:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Other Channel One News coverage of gay issues.

Warning: Explicit language

Channel One News wants kids to buy and listen to Dead Sara songs so they can vote on their favorite song.

From Dead Sara’s Myspace page: 

“Ironically, ‘We Are What You Say’ is Dead Sara’s poppiest song, ‘though it’s still kind of gnarly and sleazy,’ Medley notes. ‘It’s like, “Hey, you want pop? This is our pop, so fuck off.’”‘ Adds Armstrong: ‘That song distills a lot of what we’re about. It’s melodic and accessible, but still intense and unruly. We’ve put up quite a fight to be who we are, and I think you can hear it in the music.’” 

Interview with members of Dead Sara:

The Owl Mag: How long have you been singing? You were talking about being in bands when you were 12. How long have you actually been singing? When did you actually know you were going sing?

Emily: Oh, man, that took a while to know that. Years. When I was 12, when I first picked up the guitar, I was like this is what I want. I’m gonna be a guitar player. I’m gonna be the fucking best guitar player I could be. I wasn’t ever like a singer when I was younger. You know, like these people that are just like these fucking kids that could just sing so well. I’m like, how?

The Owl Mag: See I would have thought that you were probably one of those kids who started singing when she was two.

Emily: No fucking way! But I always loved rock and roll when I was young, always. I’d throw myself on the floor when I’d hear stuff and tell me to do stuff, you know, I’d do it.

The Owl Mag: And when did you get it and know you were really a singer?

Emily: When I was like 15, I really sat down just with my songs, just by myself, an acoustic guitar and I learned to use vibrato for the first time. I was like a late bloomer singing. I remember the first time I did vibrato, it fucking scared the living crap out of me. It just came out of me.

The Owl Mag: Really?

Emily: Isn’t that weird?

The Owl Mag: Considering how prevalent it is in your voice, yeah.

Emily: Just playing guitar and all of a sudden – I was just really into it and my guitars weren’t shaking. I’m all, what the fuck was that? I was like, what is going on, what was that? Like, I didn’t know, was there an earthquake? Like, it was the weirdest thing. And then, a little bit later, it happened again and then I realized it was like my body is convulsing into a fucking vibrato. It was the strangest experience singing, yeah. And I felt so in it. Like, the body just moved. And then, I’m doing this folk singing and I didn’t have a band. I mean, because I moved schools, but I’m still – like, I didn’t know anybody, so I would just write, play and sing and sing and sing. I did a lot of fucking Joni Mitchell covers and I was fully immersed into folk rock. I played, like, in coffee shops and stuff like that and then I met Siouxsie, and she listened to punk rock, but I loved her. She was awesome. I was like, this girl is so rad!

The Owl Mag: One question I have to ask before I forget is what’s Dead Sara? Where’d the name come from?

Emily: Oh, Fleetwood Mac. Stevie Nicks, “Sara”.

The Owl Mag: But why Dead Sara?

Emily: Well, in it, she said, “Said, ‘Sara, you’re the poet in my heart,’ “Never change” “Never stop”. Up near the end, “you know it’s gone.” Siouxsie and I always used to think it said dead Sara. We just kind of agreed on it. Dead Sara, it was like the only name that we could agree on and stuck in its ears.

The Owl Mag: What’s one of the worst names you came up with?

Emily: Oh, God. It has to be Masturbation Salvation.

The Owl Mag: No! Yeah, you’re not gonna get signed with that one.

Emily: Maybe to like a punk rock label.

Channel One News played the music of this band for an entire week in April in American classrooms.  A snippet of one of their songs would be played as each show started. Another song clip was played as Channel One News entered the first commercial break.   It’s at this point that students are shown the cover of their album, the name of the song playing, the name of the band and they are told that more information on the band was available at Channelone.com. The song continues as Channel One comes out of the commercial break.  This is repeated for the second commercial break, and students for the SIXTH time in one day are forced to hear Dead Sara as the show comes to a thankful end.

Last year Channel One News announced they were teaming up with the UK whiteboard company Promethean Limited to roll out an elementary school version of their in-school TV show.  Many people may not know that Channel One has always coveted the elementary school market, going back to the early 90′s. This New York Times article is from 1991.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/20/business/the-media-business-advertising-channel-one-may-provide-program-for-grade-schools.html

Click here to view the embedded video.

 From Jim Metrock:

Channel One News has four anchors right now – Jessica Kumari, Shelby Holliday, Scott Evans and the recently-hired Maggie Rulli.  

After last school year, I rated the chances of each of the anchors coming back.  [June 23, 2011 - Damaged Goods]

June 23, 2011

Three came back for the start of the 2011-12 school year. Steven Fabian left before the school year started for a job on the TV show Right This Minute. In October, 2011 Justin Finch abruptly left the show.  He is a local reporter for the NBC station in Miami.

This year things seem more certain.

I would say it’s once again 100% chance that Shelby Holliday will remain with Channel One if they do have a 2012-13 TV season.

Scott Evans may be packing his bags for Indianapolis over the summer. 20% chance he returns.

Jessica Kumari is the old timer having come to Channel One in 2007.  I keep thinking she will hire an agent who will quickly remove her from this stinky youth marketing TV show. Although it certainly must be sobering to see what happened to fellow anchors Steven Fabian and Justin Finch when they left the safety of Channel One earlier this school year, I give her only a 10% chance of coming back. If she ever wants to get into legitimate reporting, she has to move on. It’s not cool being in your 30′s and realizing you have devoted so much of your adult life to kiddie marketing.

Maggie Rulli - journalistic integrity LITE

From Jim Metrock:

It didn’t take long for the new Channel One News anchor Maggie Rulli to show her lack of concern for journalistic integrity.

At the start of the show she immediately introduces a Jessica Kumari promotional interview with the directors of a new Disney movie “Chimpanzee.”  The movie was released on April 20 and Channel One had been running paid commercials for the movie for weeks.  Ms. Kumari is an old hand at blurring the lines between advertising and news. It is however a little chilling to see a new anchor shill for an advertiser so quickly.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Are they right?