OneVote Exposes Channel One’s Irrelevance

October 29, 2008

 

Press Release
Source: Channel One News
Channel One News Announces "OneVote 2008" Results – Teens Declare Senator Barack Obama the President-Elect in Nationwide Online Election
Wednesday October 29, 11:12 am ET

— Obama nearly sweeps key "Battleground" states according to poll
— Channel One Network’s youth citizen journalism platform, YouTellIt.com, inspired teens to share their community stories and engage with politically-aware peers leading up to election

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Channel One News, the preeminent news and content provider for teens, today declared Senator Barack Obama as the winner of “OneVote 2008,” the network’s nationwide student mock-election held in advance of the Presidential election. Pulling in a significant 58.5% of the vote, Barack Obama wins the election by a 17 point margin, leaving John McCain holding 41.5% of the teen ballot.

With less than a week left on the campaign trail, Barack Obama and John McCain continue to trek the country in hopes of pulling in voters from what remain key battleground states. However, according to OneVote teen voters, it’s already clear who will swing the vote. Results show Barack Obama as the victor in all but one of the designated swing states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Iowa and New Hampshire, with John McCain prevailing only in Missouri.

Teens nationwide were able to cast their choice in an event created to engage them in the electoral process and to provide vital civic education by giving recognition to the voice and opinions of this next influential group of voters. Since the inception of the program in 1992, every OneVote Presidential poll has correctly predicted the national outcome.

Kent Haehl, Channel One’s CEO, commenting on “OneVote 2008” offered, “Once again, we are pleased to offer the nation’s youth an opportunity to have a voice and prepare them for the privilege of voting that adults enjoy. Channel One News has dedicated significant programming time to the primary’s last season and general election this season to prepare our viewers for this event.”

Adding, “We have seen every preceding One Vote accurately predict the winner and while the exact percentages and states won next week might be slightly different, we feel that given the history, OneVote is a good reflection of conversations taking place at dinner tables across the United States of America.”

Through conducted exit polls, teens shared their opinions about the critical issues shaping their votes. The majority of teen voters stated that the candidates’ stance on the Economy was the most important issue (39%), followed by the War in Iraq (26%). Education came in third (13%), followed closely by the Environment (12%) and Social Issues (10%).

This year, select teens served as Team OneVote on-air political commentators, sharing their views and community opinions through the network’s national daily broadcast and by filing regular reports through Channel One News’s newly launched user-generated video platform, You Tell It (www.YouTellIt.com). This unique channel brought teens together to view and share newsworthy experiences affecting their generation and gave important recognition to budding youth “citizen journalists” during the final weeks of the campaign and will continue to serve as a platform for youth expression on an ongoing basis.

OneVote 2008 marked the network’s fourth run of the largest student mock-election held in advance of the national Presidential election. Now in its second year of partnership with NBC News’s Peacock Productions, Channel One News continues to benefit from expanded global newsgathering capabilities, ensuring worldwide coverage of breaking news and has served as an important political news source for teens in the weeks leading up to the election.

For Channel One News election video footage or further information about individual school results and/or regional voting results, please contact:

Jodi Smith, 212-329-8359 jsmith@alloymarketing.com

Channel One News says students voted overwhelmingly for Senator Obama. By clicking on a state on their site map you can see the PERCENTAGE of students who voted for each candidate. McCain won Alaska and not much else, but no schools in Alaska have Channel One. How many "Channel One" students voted for each candidate in this or any state? Channel One won’t say. It is obvious that very few students participated as compared to previous years. That is mainly due to more and more schools turning off Channel One News.

The only statement Channel One made about the number of students participating in the 2008 One Vote is this line: "Hundreds of thousands of you cast your ballot."

This shows a huge drop in participants from the high of 3,400,000 in 1992. The last One Vote poll was in 2004 and the company claimed 1,400,000 students voted then. Channel One would be claiming that "nearly a million" students voted this year if they had at least 750,000 voters. The vote total must be below that. If so, this is another indicator that Channel One News has become in large measure irrelevant.