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Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood reports via Common Dreams
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has announced the end of its Channel One News broadcasts in school classrooms, and child advocates are bidding them a less-than-fond farewell. For 28 years, Channel One compelled students to watch a 12-minute newscast that includes two minutes of commercials. Each year, schools with Channel One lost the equivalent of a full week of school to the broadcasts, and a full day of instructional time to the commercials alone.
[...]Launched in 1989 by marketing executive Chris Whittle, Channel One lured schools with the promise of free classroom televisions. But the cost of this "free" equipment was high. Schools with Channel One were required to show the broadcast, including two minutes of student-targeted commercials, on 90% of school days. Former Channel One President Joel Babbit once boasted, "The advertiser gets kids who cannot go to the bathroom, cannot change the station, who cannot listen to their mother yell in the background, who cannot be playing Nintendo."
Channel One's business model was controversial from the start. Advocates from across the political spectrum, from Ralph Nader to Phyllis Schlafly, decried Channel One's exploitation of a captive student audience. Research showed that the "news" on Channel One was often fluff pieces about pop culture, that Channel One cost American taxpayers nearly $2 billion per year, and that kids in low-income school districts were more likely to be forced to watch the commercialized broadcasts.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Monday July 09 2018, @06:43AM (32 children)
I can't believe what I just read! Exposing kids to commercials during class? For 28 years? 12 minutes stolen from each instructional hour (provided the school was poor enough to need to use that shit)?
You Americans must be crazier than I though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Monday July 09 2018, @07:12AM (1 child)
I think that's 12min per day, not per hour. But still, yikes!
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday July 09 2018, @04:36PM
12 min per hours is the commercial rate on regular US TV, pushing into 15 or 16 mins/hr for cable reruns.
So, really, the kids should be glad they got a break during class.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by ledow on Monday July 09 2018, @08:26AM (11 children)
I don't know what nationality you are, but it's also infesting other countries.
The whole UK "Academies" program is a way to bypass normal use, allow commercial funding and sponsorship of schools, and subject them to similar things (not quite the same scale yet).
There is literally no difference between a school and an Academy, except that they aren't under local government control so that they can chuck out all the kids that state schools are forced to take (who are then given back to them several years later, with the state schools legally obliged to take them in the meantime), have governors and "trusts" and all kinds with other declared interests, corporate sponsorship, etc.
I worked in a school that was changing, I got out of there long before they moved. We had SPONSORED chickens installed in the centre of the school, for feck's sake. Kids were forced to take part in product demos at trade shows. The IT was sold out to a nearby Academy via a company owned by the heads of both. Literally, I spent six months Googling every trade vehicle that entered the gates, and linked them ALL back to the headmaster within seconds. Everything from golf-buddies to same-regiment Army pals (who pulled fibre through the school like it was string and destroyed it, but still got paid for the work).
Everything in America is "for-profit". Healthcare, education, prison systems. And idiots as we are, the UK are following suit. There's talk even now of selling off the NHS to American healthcare companies.
(Score: 5, Informative) by kazzie on Monday July 09 2018, @08:39AM
The whole UK "Academies" program is a way to bypass normal use, allow commercial funding and sponsorship of schools, and subject them to similar things (not quite the same scale yet).
Note that while your description of "Academies" is accurate, they only exist within the English education system. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland run things differently, and don't have these Academies. (Within Wales, at least, all state-funded schools remain under local government control.)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 09 2018, @09:36AM
The nationality is less relevant, the place of residence is Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday July 09 2018, @01:01PM (8 children)
My kids go to an academy in UK. There is no commercial sponsorship of any kind. It does make it possible for folks to donate to the school, if they want, which previously was impossible. Maybe things are different in London, that place is weird/crazy.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PiMuNu on Monday July 09 2018, @01:03PM
ps: it also take governance away from the local authority, which I guess produces results proportional to the quality of the (school leadership team)/(local educational authority). Probably random scatter with good and bad anecdotes, large statistical variance as in any ratio!
(Score: 2) by ledow on Monday July 09 2018, @02:19PM (1 child)
That you know of.
Do you know what suppliers the school are using? Have you checked the register of interests for the senior people / the trust management? Are you paying 3x over the odds for substandard equipment to raise funds for a private individual to supply those goods/services to that school? In three years time, are their results going to divebomb back to state levels (because the kids excluded have to return)? All schools are registered charities, even private and religious schools, you can always have donated to them at any point.
Hint: The answer to most of the above tends towards you getting a bad deal because nobody in local government is involved in auditing or vetoing bad decisions made for personal benefit.
I work in schools over London and Essex and have done for the last 20+ years, including several schools-to-become-Academies. Trust me, if it's an Academy, especially if it's a Multi-Academy Trust, your kids are being screwed out of an education to line the coffers of either private companies owned by those in charge, or paying immense salaries to people whose positions literally do not exist in ordinary state schools. They throw out the kids and rules to get short-term results increases, which dissipate WITHOUT FAIL over the next few years as they are forced to comply again, and then they are NO BETTER than any state school. In fact, most MATs don't actually last that long as they are sucked-dry, the people who did it move on to the next, and then they are left to deal with the consequences.
P.S. This is backed by Education ministers as they own some of those self-same companies, at the time I last worked in one, it was Gove who owned interests in most of the companies used by our new "superhead" brought in to turn it into an academy.
P.P.S. I fled the state sector JUST AS this stuff started and I witnessed it, gathered evidence on it, reported it to the DfE and to the BBC, and nobody was interested in the massive conflict of interest, and I instead work in the independent school sector now. You think about "jobs for the boys", backhanders, etc.? Don't look at private schools... go look at Academies.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday July 09 2018, @03:47PM
Why is the LEA any less corrupt than the academy? I recall LEAs in London had a very bad reputation in the 80s/90s... more money involved -> more corruption?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Monday July 09 2018, @04:49PM (4 children)
> There is no commercial sponsorship of any kind. It does make it possible for folks to donate to the school, if they want, which previously was impossible.
How to put it politely ? FUCK THIS SHIT !
Oops, lost it, apologies...
Whatever happened to that silly system I grew up in where the schools were paid for by taxes, and the teachers/students/PTA didn't spend . every . single . week . of the year nagging you for money so your kids can get PE, art and music classes ?
Oh yeah, I know, I left it in Europe (real Europe), where they believe in free equal education as an investment that pays really good returns. Let's pay ever-lower taxes instead, so our kids learn really young how their lucky friends from better areas are gonna have it better, and not share.
Fucking US/UK system. Civilized? my ass.
/rant
(Score: 3, Insightful) by krishnoid on Monday July 09 2018, @07:57PM (1 child)
Funny how current this poster still is [msnbc.com], considering that it shows up as copyright 1979 at the bottom. Although we're in more of a ground "war" now, I suppose.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday July 09 2018, @08:48PM
The only heavy bomber needed by the USAF stopped its production run in 1963. Every new one after that should have been built from bake sales, given that it was just money poured down the drain.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday July 09 2018, @11:15PM (1 child)
> How to put it politely ? FUCK THIS SHIT !
> our kids learn really young how their lucky friends from better areas are gonna have it better
Do you think it is actually bad/wrong for people to donate money to a school?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday July 09 2018, @11:25PM
I keep fancying us as civilized enough that all children get the same education at their public school, regardless of how much their parents can afford to donate to the school.
Of course, that's a pipe dream, because teachers flee terrible areas. But it's made a lot worse when public school A gets parents pitching in so much that public school B's kids are at an even greater structural disadvantage from the start of their lives.
Then again, the US doesn't trumpet Equality and Fraternity as much the Lafayette crowd, just Liberty, right?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Monday July 09 2018, @10:28AM (8 children)
But seriously, how is this any different from forcing kids to use Windows in schools?
"No, can't learn libre office or learn Linux, cos that would cause MS to pull it's donated software and donated computers.......
....happy students use MS products.... SMART students use MS products..... you're SMART, aren't you Johnny? Yes, Johnny's smart...he's a good little drone....good boy, Johnny. Yes Johnny....have you tried turning it off and on again?"
Pull ALL the shit like that and just make corporations pay more taxes so schools can be properly supplied and funded....but I guess the 'SMART' little drones would disappear then?
Sheeeeeeit. Don't let corporations teach our kids (and support free text books).
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday July 09 2018, @12:53PM (5 children)
I'm all for open-source (and also like you would prefer kids not be indoctrinated into MS products), however, this does strike me as quite different. Windows and Office are in fact standard tools and are still fairly dominant in the business world in desktop applications. Teaching you to use a standard tool used by most businesses and therefore teaching skills employees actually look for on resumes is different from running random ads.
I might have missed this (and I wouldn't quite put it past MS), but has this actually happened? As far as I know, mostly MS provides discounted software for academic use, perhaps in some cases free. But does it actually specify that you can't also install an alternative office suite or even dual-boot an OS?? Has it actually pulled software licenses for schools that did that?
Or is the problem here actually teachers/school IT who are ignorant or lazy or just don't realize the alternatives out there?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday July 09 2018, @02:52PM (3 children)
As far as I know things donated by MS don't come with those kind of strings attached. The real winner for anyone who's stuff is in the classroom is the indoctrination. You get someone using Apple / Microsoft as their main system. It's going to take a lot for them to change to a different OS.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday July 09 2018, @06:12PM (2 children)
I don't know whether they *now* come with such strings attached, but there were stories back in the 1990's about that practice, and when I looked into what you had to agree to to purchase a computer at the university student store, the agreement was written by MS, and required that MSWind be the operating system. So I find it easy to believe.
When Apple was dominant in education, they handled the problem more simply. Only the Apple OS would run on Apple hardware. And it was free, though not libre and not open source. (Actually, much of it was open source, but even that part wasn't libre, only free.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Tuesday July 10 2018, @11:46PM (1 child)
When I last remember Apple being dominate in education, their stuff was neither open or free (as in speech or beer). OSX came later, but by that time the schools had dumped all the Apple stuff for Windows.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday July 11 2018, @05:12PM
Well, I'm remembering back to the Apple ][+, and it wasn't all open, but a lot of it was.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday July 09 2018, @08:04PM
I read once that the bill and Melinda foundation gave computers to areas with 'poor' schools (Detroit, etc) and MS donated the software/OS, but you had to audit the software and if you used non-MS approved software the computers would be pulled.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 09 2018, @04:13PM (1 child)
You sure love periods.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday July 09 2018, @09:19PM
I'm married and have a daughter........................................I looooooove periods!
A happy period, EVERY TIME!
/sarc alert,......................................
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 09 2018, @11:05AM
Here, hold my beer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Monday July 09 2018, @02:35PM (1 child)
"In 2001, Houghton Mifflin was acquired by French media giant Vivendi Universal for $2.2 billion including assumed debt. In 2002, facing mounting financial and legal pressures, Vivendi sold Houghton to private equity investors Thomas H. Lee Partners, Bain Capital, and Blackstone Group for $1.66 billion, including assumed debt (approximately 25% less than Vivendi had paid a year earlier)."
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday July 10 2018, @12:24PM
Meanwhile in Germany they regularly get school days off to go to church (not to mosque or other).
Brainwashing children is common in societies.
That said, the for-profit brainwashing in TFA is odious, and it's good that it is being shut down.
Of course that does not address how woefully out of step the public education system is with the demands of the 21st century, having been designed as it was to train factory workers in the early years of the industrial revolution and not for the creative, entrepreneurial startup culture that is all the rage now. That's another discussion for another time.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Sourcery42 on Monday July 09 2018, @06:08PM (5 children)
We got this when I was in high school. At least the way they implemented it, it wasn't quite the time waster it sounds like. It played during homeroom, so it didn't use up any class time. I don't recall homeroom being extended to accommodate it either, which begs the question of why it was so long to take attendance and make an occasional announcement. The school got TVs in every classroom out of the deal, and they did make use of them from time to time.
After all these years I don't recall anything about the content. I had totally forgotten about Anderson Cooper, but I do remember Lisa Ling and watching an excellent Super Metroid commercial.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 09 2018, @08:33PM (2 children)
No it doesn't.
It may ask the question or pose the question or suggest the question but it does not use a circular argument. [wikipedia.org]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 10 2018, @04:57AM (1 child)
Found the uneducated Aspie. That's a perfectly fine phrase to use.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 11 2018, @03:28AM
Parroting incorrect things said by the bubbler-headed bleach-blond who comes on at 5 doesn't make you educated.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Tuesday July 10 2018, @11:59PM (1 child)
We had Channel One back when I was in junior high. Like your school, it was played during homeroom. As far as I could tell that was one of the main purposes of homeroom, since it was the bulk of the time spent in homeroom.
I remember the news coverage was often very biased. I distinctly remember they took the position that OJ Simpson was completely innocent and that's the only viewpoint they ever presented (that should date this quite a bit).
At first, it was taken seriously by the teachers who insisted you paid attention, and you might expect a quiz about what you saw later in the day in one of your classes. The teachers quickly found it to be a joke, and soon no one cared if you watched it or paid any attention to it.
The school did get free TV's, a 19" CRT for every classroom mounted high up on the wall. No VCR, so the school had a bunch on carts they moved around as needed. And there was some system where they could centrally turn all the TVs on and off all at once.
In high school we didn't have Channel One. And no homeroom either, oddly enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 12 2018, @08:50PM
there was some system where they could centrally turn all the TVs on and off all at once
At a hospital where I worked, the clocks were on a separate|dedicated circuit.
On the days when Daylight Saving Time kicked in|out, if you were watching a clock at just the right time, you'd swear it had gone crazy.
The building maintenance department would run up the frequency of that circuit and the synchronous motors in the clocks would speed up until they were at the new, proper time.
The guys where you were had probably done the dedicated circuit thing too.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by patrick on Monday July 09 2018, @07:34AM
Anderson Cooper and Lisa Ling! [youtube.com]
(Score: 2, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Monday July 09 2018, @08:15AM
Or possibly a woman. Because so many schools understand the deal with Channel One. And so many also agreed to it. Channel One provides the TV sets. And Channel One provides the programs. All you have to provide is the audience. And maybe you say "thank you, Channel One, we love the great equipment & programs." It's a terrific deal.
Very easy for someone to step in and take that over. And become the next Channel One. I'd love to do it, I don't make -- or watch -- as much television as I'd like to because I'm very busy with documents. And with hiring folks. I have a new guy coming in today to take over my DEP, my Department of Environmental. And a new person for our terrific Supreme Court -- tune in at 9pm Eastern for the announcement. I have a lot going on. But I'm going to pitch it to Rupert Murdoch, great guy. And believe me, my campaign will be looking into it. And my terrific Republican Party will be looking into it. The Dems, as everybody knows, like to get them young. And it's worked very well for them. Well, we can do that too. And we can do it better. These kids, some of them are 15, 16, 17. They can't vote. But in November, some of them can vote. And in 2020 a lot of them can vote. And maybe we'll have elections after that -- it never ends! #TrumpTV [twitter.com] #TRUMP2020 [twitter.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by requerdanos on Monday July 09 2018, @12:30PM
That's bad, sure, but there is an arguably bigger bad [gnu.org] throughout many schools.
This fellow Stallman, he's a little nuts, he's very odd, but he often turns out to be right on the larger social issues (e.g. pointing out software surveillance back when that was regarded as a kooky conspiracy theory instead of "Google and Facebook's business model").
(Score: 2) by Dale on Monday July 09 2018, @03:19PM (1 child)
The Channel One broadcasts were not very useful in Middle School when I was growing up. It was just something to be endured. Our school used the equipment for our own broadcasts though and that was more useful and would never have happened without the equipment already in place.
In high school it was better and more relevant in becoming aware of things beyond the immediate environment. I remember the two of them on the broadcasts as well as a host of others. Going through the election cycle was more engaging that it had been before and I do not begrudge the time we spent. The commercials were simple enough. Back then we got bombarded with them on all TV based stuff anyhow, so it wasn't any different than what we were used to at the time. I can't imagine watching that many commercials now, but I moved away from TV/Cable/Broadcast in favor of streaming and local media 15+ years ago.
An interesting questions is where would Ling & Cooper be today if it were not for their time on Channel One. I suspect they'd still be doing what they are doing, but would it be at nearly the same level?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 09 2018, @10:58PM
We had this during middle school and it was in the morning during home room. I don't see much problem with it as none of the students were paying attention.
But really, I can't imagine buying ads as few students are awake at that time and the message had to stick for at least 6 hours for any possible action.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday July 09 2018, @07:46PM
By all means, children shouldn't have to learn to deal with the concept of, "if it's 'free' there is nevertheless a price tag," and learn how to cope with advertising in a structured environment where there might be an adult willing to help understand how propaganda works. Facebook will find it ever so much easier to know everything about their lives now.
And I'm sure the broadcasts were meaningless with no educational content in them whatsoever. And that the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood doesn't use loaded reporting at all - they are a completely unbiased agent to deliver news like this without any agenda at all. Yup.
Now I'm off - I've got more Pokemon to catch.
This sig for rent.