Anderson started his career at Channel One News. Channel One is a 12 minutes news broadcast shown in junior and senior high schools. According to Wikipedia, schools that participate in Channel One sign a contract to air the program in exchange for free television equipment and VCRs, as well as the Channel One Connection video library, which gives schools over a hundred hours of commercial-free educational programming a year.
Founded by Chris Whittle in 1989, Channel One started in only four schools before going nation wide in 1991. About this time, Anderson joined the network as a fact checker. Soon after he, as the story goes, he started going to war torn countries on his own to gather stories, which he then sold to Channel One. Eventually, he became a correspondent.
This is what Anderson says about getting his start at channel One:
"I figured if I told anyone, they wouldn't give me the chance [...] I quit my job and moved overseas and started shooting with my own video camera. I figured if I put myself in situations where there weren't many Americans around and I shot little stories, then I could sell them to Channel One. I wanted to make it impossible for them to not put me on air. [...] I had a friend of mine make a fake press pass on a Macintosh, and I snuck into Burma and hooked up with some students fighting the Burmese government. I had met the person who was involved in the Burmese student movement in New York, and they gave me the name of a contact in a town in Western Thailand. So I found my way to this town that was like a Wild West border town, and I contacted the person and said I was a reporter. We met in an ice cream parlor, and then they agreed to take me in, and they smuggled me across the border into Burma." (From Wikipedia)
Does anyone have any memories of Channel One? It was a few years ahead of me in school so I didn't get a chance to see it.
Here's a video from Channel One that was shown on Oprah. Enjoy!
Thanks Sheryn ;)
19 comments:
I know a while back there was some talk of trying to identify Anderson's watch. In the video towards the end it looks like he might be wearing the same watch. Anyone know? I know that he wore a competely different one during his Mole days, and he wrote in Dispatches that he's not good at holding on to things. But I wonder, could it be the same timepiece?
Just curious,
Cassie
@Cassie- Yeah I have been wondering this same thing! In almost all of his CNN pictures he is wearing the same, mysterious watch.
And yeah I watched Channel one in middle school, I never liked it much. Too bad I Andy was already gone when I was watching it!
I remember Channel One. I entered junior high in the fall of '91, and everyone was talking about how we all had TV's & VCR's in the classrooms, and that it was part of the agreement if we watched Channel One during homeroom/studyhall. Some teachers really inforced it, there was no talking and some would encourage conversation after the broadcast.
There were also little advertising perks. Like the bookcovers that they gave out at the start of the school year.
My most vivid memory of Anderson reporting was from his report in Rwanda during the genocide - he threw-up.
The way Anderson delivers a story today, is pretty much how he did then; nothing has really changed about him.
I love Channel One Anderson. Thank you!
I love the video...Channel One wasn't around when I was in school
@Anon 5:42
I could be wrong, but the watches from the Channel One and Mole Days both appear to be yellow gold and Anderson's watch that he's been wearing for the past few years appears to be white gold or silver.
I really like that clip. I remember rushing home to catch the re-run of that oprah episode over the summer.
YAY! great video.
i didn't have channel one. boo.
Anderson's voice was so different at 23. He did seem much younger than he was.
He really did mature and develop a great deal of confidence in a few short years.
@Mare-He threw up? On camera? I was the right age for some Channel One Anderson, but I guess my school was stupid. And to think we could have had free tvs & vcrs.
Sheryn, I know you said you couldn't wait for the political season to start...but today?
I'm watching the midnight rerun of LKL, and there was just an anti-McCain ad. The election is too far off to begin the POSITIVE ads...let alone the NEGATIVE ads!
The clip from Oprah is so cute I love the way his voice cracks when he hears the shot. One of my other favorite clips is from Carson Daly when they show a clip from Channel one and Carson asks Andy about the clip and Andeson said,
"What did I know I was 23" or something like that.
I tried to find it on You Tube but it's not on there. And I love the grown up reporter's voice.
Purple Tie, my son, Joshua, remembers Channel One but, Anderson was long gone by the time he started high school. His memories are of Lisa Ling.
@ Maire- Andy threw up on TV? Poor guy :(. Sometimes I really just want to hug him.
I vaguely remember Channel One, but we never watched it in high school. We watched it in 5th grade, but of course by then Andy wasn't working for them anymore.
Thanks for the vid. of Young Andy. He such a big liar tho, saying "he hasn't seen this." xtina
I hate to admit this but I graduated in 1985 so Channel One wasn't around back then. I would have loved this kind of news coverage in High School.
So, I thought of this post today in the Quick Check getting coffee. I was putting sugar in my coffee and Flock of Seagulls came streaming thru the store. I smiled to myself and thought of the first picture you posted!
Pssst, your welcome! ;)
@anon/xtina I thought the same thing, but maybe it's something he'd rather not be brought up.
I remember Channel One from high school. I think ours may have been one of the first schools to get it. I remember anchor Kathy Kronenberger; sadly, I don't remember Anderson. If he was on in '91 - '92, I likely was more focused on finishing my Calculus homework and finding a date to the senior prom when it was being broadcast in homeroom.
I was a teacher in a Jr. High School when channel one was introduced to our school. At that time Anderson Cooper and Lisa Ling were the main reporters along with a beautiful blonde anchor person whose name completely eludes me but I have often wondered what ever happened to her?
Wow, Good to see some footage up. Yeah I remember all of the Anchors though I was a part of the 2nd generation of them Anderson Cooper, Raulie Valverde, Craig Jackson, Lisa Ling, Serena Alchul, Kathy Crowninburger (sp?), and there were some more.
I remember the Rawanda footage. It was very powerful. Yes Anderson threw up on camera, but I think the whole idea was to show you the effects of what was going on and death all around. Folks talk aboou how no one paid attention about what was going on there just b/c that movie told them they didn't know, but I think anyone who had Channel One knew.
Also, On a lighter side It always seemed like Craig Jackson and Valverde were always hanging in the Hacienda and were like, "Lets see where Anderson is getting shot at today." After Anderson left I think a guy named Joel Brand took over. He was definitely no Anderson Cooper.
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