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| | | | --- | --- | | Red Rock Eater Digest | Most Recent Article: Wed, 5 Jul 2000 |
Channel One Headed for Breakup
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Date: 01 Aug 94 21:37 PDT
From: EcoNet IGC APC
/ Written 7:19 PM Aug 1, 1994 by econet in igc:edu.popular / / ---------- "Channel One Headed for Breakup" ---------- /
From: Marianne Manilov
UNPLUG ACTION ALERT:
"Whittle's Bridges Falling Down,"
Read the July 18, 1994 front-page headline of Advertising Age. The article stated that Channel One's owner Whittle Communications, which defaulted last month on a $100 million bridge loan and is selling its Medical News Network due to a lack of advertisers, "is headed for imminent breakup." Wall Street Journal has reported that Whittle needs $50 million to keep its Edison Project going and is trying to sell half of Channel One to Goldman, Sachs & Co. to alleviate debt. The Knoxville News-Sentinel reported that Whittle's Tennessee headquarters is for sale to the federal government at a price half its value. Another Knoxville reporter referred to Whittle as the "vanishing cat in Alice and Wonderland."
What does this mean to students, teachers, parents and other people who want to protect public education from for-profit companies that seek to exploit it? IT MEANS WE ARE WINNING! Our opposition to classroom commercialism and Channel One--a 12-minute commercial news program that auctions-off learning time to the makers of junk food and designer sneakers--is having a demonstrable effect. And it means now is the time to increase the pressure on Channel One advertisers.
UNPLUG--a national youth organization working for commercial-free, equal education--and the National Education Association have mounted an educational effort to encourage divestment of state school employee pension funds from companies which advertise on Channel One. A Washington Post reporter recently called this divestment effort "the most determined effort yet to kill [Whittle's] money-maker, the classroom television news service Channel One." And, as significantly, schools and school districts across the country are deciding not to renew their contracts with Channel One.
We must ask Reebok and McDonald's not to advertise on Channel One when school starts this year. We're starting with these two companies because 1) Reebok has a stated corporate commitment to social responsibility and human rights and Channel One compromises this commitment, and 2) McDonalds just started advertising on Channel One last year, three years after President, Ed Rensi, said that the program "isn't a good trade-off for the schools or students."
Call and write McDonald's and Reebok today, then call your friends, relatives, teachers, neighbors--everyone you can--and ask them to do the same. Tell them why you think Channel One is a bad idea for education and for advertisers (because so many students hate the program) and that they should stop advertising on Channel One as of this school year. It has never been more important to take action for equal, commercial-free education.
% Reebok: write -- Paul Fireman, President and CEO, Reebok, 100 Technology Center Drive, Stoughton, MA 02072; or call -- (800) 843-4444.
% McDonaldUs: write -- Ed Rensi, President, McDonalds Corp., McDonaldUs Plaza, Oak Brook, IL 60521; or call -- (708) 575-3000. [McDUs has no toll-free #.]
For more information, contact UNPLUG at (510) 268-1100 or (800) UNPLUG-1.
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