cannabisnews.com: News Content For Sale





News Content For Sale
Posted by FoM on August 15, 2001 at 22:45:05 PT
Editorial
Source: St. Petersburg Times 
Channel One Loses Credibility When It Profits From Allowing Anti-Drug Propaganda To Be Inserted Into The News Reports It Prepares For U.S. Schoolchildren. Critics concerned about the impact of Channel One -- the company that put television sets in schools and broadcasts commercials for unhealthful drinks and snacks along with news programming -- have something new to worry about. Captive-audience children in thousands of schools across the nation aren't just being exposed to a couple of minutes of commercials along with their "three Rs." 
It turns out they are also getting a helping of government propaganda. The White House Office of National Drug Conrol Policy, home of the drug czar, is compensating Channel One whenever it airs approved anti-drug messages in its news reports. While the notion of discouraging school children from using illicit drugs is a positive one, it shouldn't be accomplished through government financial incentives to manipulate news content. This disturbing collaboration is part of the federal anti-drug program exposed last year by the online magazine Salon.com. In 1997, Congress approved nearly $1-billion for anti-drug advertising. The law stipulated that all advertising ONDCP bought must be sold at half price. For every ad ONDCP purchased, another would have to be provided free of charge. For television networks and magazines, this was an expensive proposition, but there was a loophole. Media outlets were allowed to exchange programming and editorial content with approved anti-drug messages for the free ads. Television networks and magazines happily participated by submitting content they thought would satisfy the evaluators at the ONDCP and reduce the number of free ads owed the government. Some television shows even sent their scripts to the ONDCP for prior approval. But as unsettling as it is for the government to be rewarding producers of The Practice for a sufficiently uncool depiction of a drug user, it is far more insidious to be paying news outlets when they do the same. According to Salon.com, Channel One sent 10 news segments to ONDCP from August 2000 to January 2001, but only one was credited as "on message." However, from February to May 2001, seven of 11 news segments submitted by Channel One were approved. Obviously, the company had figured out how to be more "on message" with its drug reporting. According to the magazine's report, Channel One was able to recoup more than $3-million in free ads in a single school year. ONDCP invests heavily in advertising on Channel One because it provides a direct link to a target audience of young people ages 11 to 18. Each daily show, consisting of 10 minutes of news and two minutes of commercials, reaches more teens than any television show on prime time. But apparently it is not just those four 30-second commercial slots that are for sale; the news content is, too. This is a sure-fire way to make young people more cynical of the news media and more detached from current events. If they think the government is using Channel One to present a distorted picture of the drug problem, whose news are they going to trust? By dangling hundreds of millions of advertising dollars at the entertainment and news industries, the government has bought itself a behind-the-scenes role in directing our culture. One would expect this kind of subterfuge in totalitarian countries, but it should have no place here. In the meantime, Channel One's role as the news organ for our schools should be re-evaluated. The company has compromised its credibility by having an influential government patron. The perception that Channel One might have altered its news content to please ONDCP evaluators is irreconcilable with journalistic ethics and it should no longer be held up as an objective newscast for our nation's schools. News Article Courtesy of Mapinc.http://mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1503/a03.htmlSource: St. Petersburg Times (FL)Published: August 15, 2001Copyright: 2001 St. Petersburg TimesContact: letters sptimes.comWebsite: http://www.sptimes.com/Related Articles:Reading, Writing And Propagandahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10560.shtmlPropaganda for Dollars http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread4317.shtml
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Comment #18 posted by MikeEEEEE on August 16, 2001 at 16:59:38 PT
5 minutes 
Thats how long it takes me to shut off the news.
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Comment #17 posted by SATAN on August 16, 2001 at 13:48:02 PT
youthful minds (control)
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (What more could I WANT?)
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Comment #16 posted by Rambler on August 16, 2001 at 09:51:23 PT
Cannabuzz
class of'97' huh,  far out!  I was class of '74', and that seemslike it was about 5 years ago!Beware my friend,  when 2010 hits,it will seem like now wasabout a year ago.
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Comment #15 posted by MDG on August 16, 2001 at 09:40:33 PT
Don't take the brown DSL.
That scenario about black-market internet access definitely sounds like a future possibility, considering the Feds would prefer that pesky Bill of Rights be repealed. The blatant anti-free speech language of the Meth-Amphetamine Proliferation Act is just a little taste of what they really want.Recently overhead in a police station of the future (is that possible?): That G**damned Constitution is really keeping me from getting my job done.I'm surprised we haven't seen a picture of the Bill of Rights on a milk carton. Hmmm. Sounds like a good bumper sticker.
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Comment #14 posted by dddd on August 16, 2001 at 09:26:53 PT
dam you Kickaha
I gotta give you another $56.87 bonus award for the "gatesing"item. I'll still have to pay ya later,,,,maybe I can pay you offin some of this hairy encrypted shit..It's as good or better thanIntel Gold,,,but it has alot of shake encoding.....dddd
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Comment #13 posted by Kickaha on August 16, 2001 at 09:12:29 PT
dddd
Thanks, man. That's the encrypted stuff, right? Send it soon, because I'm Jonesing(or should that be Gatesing?)
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Comment #12 posted by Cannabuzz on August 16, 2001 at 09:06:05 PT
Channel One getz an F-
ya, i got out of high school in '97. we all had to watch that "newz" called "channel One". especially the "brilliant" anti-drug commercialz, like the one with Montey Python's tripped out cartoons climbing into the head of a pot head only to find a cheese puff. Fucking brilliant!! that's right, "I learned not to try pot in high school because pot heads have a cheese puff for a brain.", according to that commercial...ha ha ha, so funny, just wipe my ass cuz i'm five years old.....how stoopid do they think we are?!when will R government wake up?! Dennis Miller iz right, "Washington [D.C.] is like Club Med for fat, doughy-headed white guys who don't have a clue cuz their head so far up the other guys ass!"
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Comment #11 posted by dddd on August 16, 2001 at 08:44:13 PT
Kickaha
Your concept made me HOWL.......You get the $489.08 award,,,,,I'll pay ya later....by the way,,,I can score you some killer DSL,,it's the kind,,,man,,,,,If you're interested let me know,and I'llsend you a map to find the right relay box to tap into....dddd
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Comment #10 posted by Kickaha on August 16, 2001 at 08:23:54 PT
Internet Access
I can see it now- the government starts to clamp down on internet access, and a thriving black market springs up. I look forward to meetings under bridges next to fiber switches,using dirty patchcords to plug in, and my geeked-out dealer assuring me that "it's pure T1, dude! 1.44MB per second up and down, guaranteed throughput, man!"
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Comment #9 posted by dddd on August 16, 2001 at 08:18:27 PT
Great stuff Lehder
.....but knock it off,,,,,I'm getting tired of having to complimentyou...dddd
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Comment #8 posted by Lehder on August 16, 2001 at 07:56:39 PT
'The medium is the message'
...and separation of school and state is the solution, one of the Libertarian Party's objectives.From today's IBD:In 1964, in the book "Understanding Media", Marshall McLuhan said famously: "The medium is the message." In 1967 he issued another book, "The Medium is the Massage."Well, in the case of public schools ( or what Milton Friedman calls government schools ), is it message or massage? It's both. The message is that government monopoly is good. And massage implies politics galore, which accounts for the politicized lessons taught in public schools....It wasn't always thus. Private school systems date back to at least ancient Greece. And as John Stuart Mill commented in "On Liberty", his 1859 classic, "A general state education is a mere contrivance for molding people to be exactly like one another." Mill called for schools based "on the voluntary principle."Ludwig Mieses wrote in a similar vein in "Liberalism" (1929): "The school is a political prize of highest importance. It cannot be deprived of its political character as long as it remains a public and compulsory institution. There is, in fact, only one solution: The state, the laws, must not in any way concern themselves with schooling or education. Public funds must not be used for such purposes. The rearing and instruction of youth must be left to parents and to private associations and institutions."Getting from here to there is going to be tough considering that the Libertarian message has no access to the media.
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Comment #7 posted by dddd on August 16, 2001 at 05:58:55 PT
the internet
to add to Ramblers comment;>"In the next ten years,the internet"problem",will be taken care of by an incrimental,gradual control  strategy,which will end in corporate/government ownership of internet access."I used to think that the powers that be would take overthe internet,,and someone said that could never happen,and that is true,,,,,,,but,,,you dont need to take overthe internet,,,,nope...all you need to do is take overall the ACCESS to the internet!,,,and I think that this iswhat will happen......If the corporate/government beastcan successfully monopolize the way people access theinternet,then they can control what happens on the internet.The internet is too huge to buy,,but access to the internet canbe easily controlled in the same way the FCC has been boughtand paid off by those who now dominate the "publicly owned" airwaves.ddddP.S.,,,,in case anyone didnt know,,,Me and Rambler are very closelyacquainted.....
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Comment #6 posted by boppy on August 16, 2001 at 05:43:52 PT
brave new world
Even the the sound of it, "Channel One", has a ring of a Brave New World, doesn't it? I'm glad that I got to my daughters before our "helpful" government did. I feel sorry and very afraid for parents of grade school children right now. We all should be afraid.
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Comment #5 posted by The Offspring on August 16, 2001 at 05:42:18 PT
Why?
Does the U.S. government want to be like the Nazis. That is basically what the Nazis did. They corrupted minds at a young age with Propaganda. If I was an American I would be really pissed off and contact my representative of government. Something has got to be done before the U.S. is a totaltarian state. It will happen if there is no opposition.
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Comment #4 posted by meagain on August 16, 2001 at 05:23:48 PT
What next?
Channel 1 gets a big fat ZERO.
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Comment #3 posted by Rambler on August 16, 2001 at 00:19:10 PT
One channel,one world
Channel One is the foot in the door of corporate government dominance and controlling oversight of all broadcast media.I dont know if any of you are familiar with the recent takeover of National Public Radio by the corporate american regime.We are very close to the point,where the internet will be the only problem area remaining for unregulated free expression.In the next ten years,the internet"problem",will be taken care of by an incrimental,gradual control strategy,which will end in corporate/government ownership of internet access.
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Comment #2 posted by REDZOMBIE on August 16, 2001 at 00:05:10 PT
SCUM
Channel One is the scum of the earth. Channel One makes network "news" look like a good thing. 
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Comment #1 posted by reality on August 15, 2001 at 23:16:35 PT
it needs to stop
We need to stop programming our children and teach them to think. If they want to watch tv they can do that at home. Why don't they read newspapers in school? Makes sense to me. Of course I do not have the benefit of modern educational techniques and I think marijuana should be legalized so my opinion doesn't count.
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