NEWS RELEASE
For More Information Contact: Gary Ruskin (503) 235-8012
For Immediate Release: January 7th, 1999
Coalition Urges Speaker Hastert to Investigate How Channel One Harms Children, Schools, Taxpayers
Following is a joint statement from Commercial Alert; Eagle Forum; Obligation, Inc.; TV-Free America; and Citizens’ Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools:
Channel One is bad for education and for America’s children. It is unfortunate that House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) would give his first interview as Speaker with Channel One.
We strongly urge Speaker Hastert to hold hearings to investigate the adverse impacts of Channel One on children, schools and taxpayers. Speaker Hastert can improve American education by investigating and publicizing how Channel One: (1) forces children to watch ads; (2) wastes valuable time in schools; and, (3) wastes tax dollars spent on schools.
A 1998 study by Max Sawicky of the Economic Policy Institute and Professor Alex Molnar of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, titled “The Hidden Costs of Channel One,” concluded that Channel One’s cost to taxpayers in lost class time is $1.8 billion per year. Taxpayers should not subsidize the delivery of advertising to children in schools.
A 1997 study by Vassar College Associate Professor William Hoynes, titled “News for a Captive Audience: The Case of Channel One,” found that the content of Channel One’s “news” programming was shallow. In schools that show Channel One, students spend the equivalent of one full week each school year watching the program, including nearly one class day watching ads.
Channel One is a marketing company that delivers advertising to children in schools. Each school day, Channel One broadcasts two minutes of commercials and ten minutes of “news” programming to approximately eight million students in 12,000 schools across the country.
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