Southern Baptists Want Channel One Removed From Schools

[Gary Ruskin <gary@essential.org>]

Commercial Alert						June 16, 1999

	The Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution today urging
people to remove Channel One from schools.  Channel One is a marketing
company that uses the schools to deliver advertising to captive
audiences of children.  The Southern Baptists' resolution calls on
"school administrators and community leaders to work to remove Channel
One from their school districts" and urges parents to "to seek effective
ways to protect their children from the advertising assault" of Channel
One.  The Southern Baptists are the largest Protestant denomination,
with 16 million members.

	Following is the full text of the Southern Baptist Convention
resolution:

Resolution No. 8 - On Channel One

WHEREAS, the nurture of children is the most important calling of the
family, deserving the support of society; and
WHEREAS, Popular culture increasingly bombards impressionable children
with images of sex and violence; and
WHEREAS, Those images of sex and violence are generally communicated
through movies, music, video games, and television; and
WHEREAS, Schools have traditionally been a refuge from some of the
noxious influences of our culture, especially from the marketing
strategies of purveyors of popular culture; and
WHEREAS, State compulsory attendance laws compel children to attend
schools; and
WHEREAS, approximately eight million students, grades 6-12, are forced
to watch the Channel One Network, a daily twelve-minute television
program, containing advertising targeting those age groups; and
WHEREAS, Channel One advertising includes promotion of junk foods; chat
rooms and "Personal Ads" message boards; movies such as Eddie Murphy's
Holy Man and Adam Sandler's The Water Boy, both of which are
age-inappropriate for the students who see these ads; movies with
sexually suggestive content such as Never Been Kissed; movies with
ultra-violent themes such as The Mummy and Quest; television shows like
Steven King's The Shining and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; sexualized
magazines like Seventeen; and has broadcast the music of groups known
for their violent and sexually explicit lyrics such as the satanic rock
band, Marilyn Manson; and
WHEREAS, In most cases Channel One is shown to children without the
knowledge or consent of their parents; and
WHEREAS, Channel One consumes one hour per week of schools'
instructional time, the content over which classroom teachers, school
administrators, and community leaders have no control.
Be it therefore RESOLVED that we, the messengers to the Southern Baptist
Convention, meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, June 15-16, 1999, find the
advertising and commercial use of Channel One unfortunate and an
erroneous educational strategy; and
Be it further RESOLVED that we urge parents to investigate whether their
children's schools are using Channel One and to seek effective ways to
protect their children from the advertising assault of the network; and
Be it further RESOLVED that we call on school administrators and
community leaders to work to remove Channel One from their school
districts; and
Be it finally RESOLVED that we implore schools that decide to maintain a
contract with Channel One to show the program only to children whose
parents have given fully informed consent in writing.
<-----------------resolution ends here-------------------->

On May 20, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions held a hearing on Channel One.  Hearing testimony explained, in
great detail, how Channel One harms children, schools and taxpayers. 
The testimony is available at:  

http://www.essential.org/alert/channel_one/index.html

The web page also contains a model school board policy and model state
legislation against commercialism in the public schools, and a variety
of other resources on Channel One.
	
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Gary Ruskin | Commercial Alert 
1611 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite #3A | Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 296-2787 | Fax (202) 833-2406
http://www.essential.org/alert/ | mailto:gary@essential.org
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