How important is getting news to children for the Channel One Network?
Well, if you have read this web site for the pass few years, you know already that getting news to children is not a high priority for our marketing friends at Channel One. Jim Ritts is the head of this "teen news program" and he has no experience in broadcast journalism (or any type of journalism) or in education. That is not unusual. Channel One hires marketing and advertising people to run the company.
The previous president of programming was Andy Hill who came from CBS Entertainment, not CBS News. The man who took Hill’s place worked for Channel One, Disney, and the infamous Digital Entertainment Network.
Below is a copy of the top story on Channel One’s web site as of Friday, November 24, 2000. What is so unusual about this article? This is old news. This article was current on Tuesday, November 21. There is nothing on Channelone.com to update a young person about this important story. Channel One doesn’t mention anything about the canvassing board of Miami-Dade County voting not to recount by hand. They failed to write anything about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear Gov. Bush’s appeal. There has been nothing added to this "News" section of Channel One since three days ago!
This happens all the time with Channel One. They don’t care about the news. The "news" is simply a ploy they use to get into schools.
Channel One proclaims in their self-promotional material that they are the only source of news for many schoolchildren. If they really believed that they would have their reporters providing video news reports each evening on their web site and on the weekends. They would provide a streaming video newscast on the web each day of summer vacation. On holidays they would keep loyal student viewers up-to-date on current events.
Channel One’s whole web site should be nothing but news. Instead there is virtually no hard news.
Jim Metrock said, "You can’t do news worse than this. Channel One is a cheap company. Keeping children up-to-date on the news would cost them too much. They care more about their Christmas bonuses than ‘teaching the news.’ This company has the capability to provide live news updates on the web. They have the capability to broadcast 365 days a year. They don’t because they aren’t in the news business. If they really did think they were the only source of news for kids, they don’t take that responsibility very seriously."
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From Channelone.com Friday, November 24, 2000 Hand Count Continues In a victory for Vice President Al Gore, the Florida Supreme Court ruled unanimously late Tuesday night that hand counts of ballots in three greatly Democratic counties can continue despite efforts by Republicans to stop them. Gore’s lawyers asked for hand recounts in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, claiming that many of the votes in those counties were unjustly excluded from earlier tallies. The allowaning (sic) of hand recounts is important because it could very well decide the next president of the United States. Bush previously led by 930 votes statewide, but his lead will be reduced once the hand-counted ballots are tallied. The Supreme Court’s ruling overturned a controversial decision last week by Florida’s Secretary of State Katherine Harris to make the deadline for accepting recounted ballots November 14. That deadline would have given Bush the 25 electoral votes for Florida needed to take the presidency. The latest ruling by the Supreme Court requires the Secretary of State to accept new hand vote totals until 5 p.m. Sunday or 9 a.m. Monday. The court said hand recounts are important in today’s society of modern technology. "In almost all endeavors, including elections," the court wrote, "humans routinely correct the errors of machines." Bush’s campaign leader and former Secretary of State, James A. Baker, said the Supreme Court’s ruling is completely unfair. "It is simply not fair to change the rules, either in the middle of the game or after the game has been played," he said. "Therefore, we intend to examine and consider whatever remedies we may have to correct this injustice." |
Channel One refuses to use its producers and anchors/reporters to provide updated news for children. This week, Channel One threw children a bone by providing two links to headline news services on the Web.
Jim Metrock said, "This is pathetic. Channel One is as phony as a three-dollar bill. The ‘premier news source for teens’ thinks that typing in links to wire news services is acceptable. Go to channelone.com and see how much content is hard news. This web site is a joke. The fact that it is constantly advertised on the in-school TV show, wasting thousands of hours of school time across the nation, is disgusting."
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Above: Channel One’s links for children who can’t find any news at Channel One’s web site.
Obligation’s Main Page One Channel One
News About Channel One 2002 (Jan – Jun)
Obligation, Inc.
3100 Lorna Road
Suite 311
Birmingham, AL 35216
Phone: (205) 822-0080
Fax: (205) 822-3336
Email: info@obligation.org
Promoting What Helps Children, Changing What Harms Them
