Channel One Television Program

California Department of Education officials announced Monday that they will appeal a ruling by a Santa Clara County judge that allows a San Jose public high school to broadcast in class the controversial "Channel One" television news program and its commercials.

Ivy Gullickson, 17, of Northridge, spent Monday pitching stories to producers, calling sources and anchoring a newscast viewed by an estimated 8 million students nationwide. Ivy was selected by Channel One News, a show broadcast each day in about 12,000 secondary schools across the country, as one of 18 aspiring young broadcasters for its seventh annual "Student Produced Week." More than 1,000 students nationwide applied for positions on the editorial and production staff.

A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge raised concerns Wednesday that students may be unlawfully coerced into watching commercial advertising on the Channel One television news program being shown in some California schools. Considering a widely watched test case brought by state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig and the state PTA against a local district that is using the program, Judge Jeremy Fogel said the mere presence of TV commercials is not illegal.

Wonder where your money is going? If you share a household with a teenager, chances are your money is being "consumed" on the average of 4.33 times a day. A survey of more than 700 teens showed that the typical 12- to 17-year-old eats 4.33 times a day, and close to half (42%) eat more than five times a day. In the 1998 Teen Eating Study, commissioned by Channel One Network, one-third of all meals are eaten away from home, with teens spending $12.7 billion a year at fast-food restaurants.

Wonder where your money is going? If you share a household with a teenager, chances are your money is being "consumed" on the average of 4.33 times a day. A survey of more than 700 teens showed that the typical 12- to 17-year-old eats 4.33 times a day, and close to half (42%) eat more than five times a day. In the 1998 Teen Eating Study, commissioned by Channel One Network, one-third of all meals are eaten away from home, with teens spending $12.7 billion a year at fast-food restaurants.

"It is frustrating when people say to me, 'Do you want to be the next Connie Chung?' " says an exasperated Lisa Ling. This type of stereotypical question comes with the territory when you're a young, female Asian American TV reporter. But Chung would hardly seem to be a likely model for this intrepid 24-year-old.

A judge on Thursday refused to ban the Channel One current events TV program from a California school, but ordered a trial before classes resume in the fall on whether it may continue in its present form. The case is being closely followed by U.S. school districts that use or are considering using Channel One. About 7.1 million students in nearly 11,800 public and private high schools in 45 states watch the program each school day.

"Channel One," a commercial news program beamed into about 10,000 American secondary schools--and the object of a court battle between educators in California--was given a mixed assessment in a study released Wednesday. Researchers found a majority of students and teachers using "Channel One" rated it favorably. But its effect on the current events knowledge of the average viewer was minimal.

For Bennito Esparza, first period English kicks off with 12 minutes of television. On a recent morning, the Cerritos high school senior and his classmates were engrossed in a Channel One program about a teen-age art show in Chicago that raised $18,000. "Cool hair," remarked one student as she watched a teen-ager with a Liberace-style hairdo painting a mask.

The company that hopes to place a television program, with commercials, in California public school classrooms has paid lobbyists and other professional persuaders $640,400 in the last 18 months, state records reveal. Reports filed with the secretary of state show that Whittle Communications of Knoxville, Tenn., has hired three of the Capitol's most successful lobbying firms to ease the way for its Channel One.

"It is frustrating when people say to me, 'Do you want to be the next Connie Chung?' " says an exasperated Lisa Ling. This type of stereotypical question comes with the territory when you're a young, female Asian American TV reporter. But Chung would hardly seem to be a likely model for this intrepid 24-year-old.

Eight years after its controversial debut, Channel One, the classroom news program beamed into 12,000 schools nationwide, was the object of renewed attack Wednesday from a pair of studies examining the content of the daily 12-minute show.

Whittle Communications, in a move that all but ends entrepreneur Christopher Whittle's dream of building a new kind of media empire, is close to selling the Whittle Educational Network to publishing giant K-III Communications Corp. for nearly $300 million, executives close to the negotiations confirmed Tuesday. The sale is the latest and most dramatic downshift yet for Knoxville, Tenn.

The Assembly voted Monday to keep the schoolhouse door open to Channel One, the much-debated televised news program with commercials playing in 160 California schools. A bill to ban the television program from being shown in the schools was rejected when it mustered only 31 Assembly votes, 10 short of a majority. The bill may be reconsidered later.

California Department of Education officials announced Monday that they will appeal a ruling by a Santa Clara County judge that allows a San Jose public high school to broadcast in class the controversial "Channel One" television news program and its commercials.

A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge raised concerns Wednesday that students may be unlawfully coerced into watching commercial advertising on the Channel One television news program being shown in some California schools. Considering a widely watched test case brought by state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig and the state PTA against a local district that is using the program, Judge Jeremy Fogel said the mere presence of TV commercials is not illegal.

In one sense, there was some surprising news the other day about Channel One, the made-for-the-classroom news program that has been banned in California's public schools because it laces its learning with commercials. Whittle Communications, the owner of Channel One, actually paid for a study concluding that its own product hasn't done much to increase high school students' knowledge of current affairs.

Ruling Against Commercial TV in Classroom: A contract for putting commercials in classrooms through the controversial television service Channel One violates New Jersey state law, an administrative law judge has ruled. Channel One, which carries commercials along with its news programming, "is inappropriate fare in home room or any other school day period," Judge Bruce R. Campbell wrote.

A judge on Thursday refused to ban the Channel One current events TV program from a California school, but ordered a trial before classes resume in the fall on whether it may continue in its present form. The case is being closely followed by U.S. school districts that use or are considering using Channel One. About 7.1 million students in nearly 11,800 public and private high schools in 45 states watch the program each school day.