A review of one advertiser on Channel One’s web site has been completed and there is bad news for parents. Digitalbackpack.com has solicited personal information from children who are funneled to their site by the Channel One Network. Channel One enlisted hundreds of school teachers and principals to hand out advertising for Digitalbackpack.com in...
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Can you imagine a public school teacher, during school, handing out advertising material for a private company? Taxpayers again took a body blow by the resourceful Channel One marketing team. During the recent disastrous "OneVote" mock election (less than 900,000 students participated), Channel One distributed ballots that were little more than an advertisement for...
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From Jim Metrock: I spent a good portion of yesterday surfing around a web site called About.com. This is the company that Channel One’s parent company, Primedia, Inc., wants to merge with. The press release below explains our concerns about this merger. I just wanted to add some thoughts after treading through the gutter...
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    Channel One Blasts Destiny’s Child Into America’s Schools   Punk Band Green Day Gets Their Day In Class Via Channel One   Baha Men Let "The Dogs Out" In Your Child’s Classroom   November 12, 2000 -"All Request Thursdays" Bring Rock, Rap Back Into Classrooms For years, Channel One played music on...
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For Immediate Release: For More Information Contact: Thursday, November 9, 2000 Gary Ruskin (202) 296-2787 Jim Metrock (205) 612-3376 Following the announcement of a proposed merger between Primedia Inc. and About.com Inc., two media watchdog groups raised questions regarding whether it was proper and appropriate for Primedia, a large media company, to merge with...
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From Jim Metrock: On November 3, Channel One executives gave the go-ahead to force feed millions of schoolchildren a commercial for the sexually charged and violent PG13 movie "Charlie’s Angels." Obligation will have more information shortly. A middle school is monitoring and making copies of Channel One for us so that parents across the...
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From Jim Metrock: "Killer at Thurston High" was the name of tonight’s Frontline news show on PBS. It was an incredible journey back into the life of the Oregon school shooter, Kip Kinkle. It showed that many different factors came into play to shape this young man. His relationship with his father was difficult,...
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Channel One’s parent company is Primedia, Inc. Primedia is primarily a magazine publisher and it is 72% owned by Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts a leverage buyout firm. Yesterday, Primedia announced a merge with About.com. The resulting sell off of Primedia stock certainly must have spooked Primedia’s management lead by Tom Rogers. The stock dropped...
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Channel One set up a mock election ("OneVote") that doubled as an advertising vehicle for a new dot.com company called DigitalBackPack.com and for a massive self-promotion for Channel One itself. Channel One made a major effort to get schoolchildren in schools that still have Channel One to sign up and vote in the election...
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Check out the length of Channel One’s show during September. They are still violating the contract they themselves wrote. 12 minutes is the maximum for a Channel One show. That is what schools signed up for. This wholesale violation of the contract may well make the contract null and void. It certainly makes it...
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What exactly is Channel One trying to sell our students? Well, now you can see for yourself as you sit in front of your computer. You can now view specific Channel One commercials taken from actual tapes that came from America’s classrooms. It is often very difficult to get tapes of Channel One shows...
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NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release: For More Information Contact: Friday, September 29, 2000 Gary Ruskin (202) 296-2787 Jim Metrock (205) 612-3376 Brownback Carries Water for Company That Promotes Violent Entertainment to Schoolchildren Conservative and progressive organizations and scholars today criticized Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) for his work as "chief Senate apologist" for Primedia’s Channel...
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A high school junior in Oak Grove, MO has started a web site that offers information for those who oppose Channel One. Jonathan Harm’s school has Channel One and ZapMe! Channel One officials have always thought that students were mindless robots that love anything that is on TV, especially if it takes away from...
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Dear Mr. Ritts: Please instruct your sales department and Dr. Folkemer to immediately refrain from advertising violent entertainment on your show. As you know, Channel One has systematically marketed violent entertainment to schoolchildren. (Sorry, got the tapes and, as you know, the FTC invited me to show them your company’s ads for violent entertainment....
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On September 14, the General Accounting Office issued a report documenting the rapid rise of commercialism in public schools. Channel One’s type of commercialism is only one type, albeit, in our minds it is one of the most outrageous. The report which made news across the country is: GAO/HEHS-00-156 Public Education: Commercial Activities in...
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Shamelessly advertisers and marketers sat in the Grand Hyatt Hotel on September 14 and handed out "Golden Marble" awards to honor the best advertising to children. These advertisers also had two days of seminars on how to more effectively manipulate children and to get a large portion of their allowance money. It was no...
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Great article by Bob Condor in the September 3, 2000 Chicago Tribune about how schools send contradictory nutritional messages to schoolchildren. Schools take National School Lunch Program money and then show Channel One with its incessant junk food and soft drink commercials. Doesn’t make sense does it? That is why our coalition sent letters...
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   September 8, 2000 – For More Than Four Years Channel One Has Marketed Violent Entertainment to America’s Schoolchildren Important Press Release – Fri., September 8, 2000  
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