Minow, who was appointed as FCC chief by President John F. Kennedy, championed quality in television and received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.
“My faith is in the belief that this country needs and can support many voices of television — and that the more voices we hear, the better, the richer, the freer we shall be,” Minow once said. “After all, the airways belong to the people.”
Minow laid down his famous challenge to TV executives on May 9, 1961, in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, urging them to sit down and watch their station for a full day, “without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit-and-loss sheet or rating book to distract you.” As he spoke, the three networks were just about all most viewers had to choose from. Pay television was barely in the planning stage, PBS andwere several years away, and HBO and niche channels such as Animal Planet were far in the future.
Minow became the first government official to get a George Foster Peabody award for excellence in broadcasting. The New York Times critic Jack Gould wrote, “At long last there is a man in Washington who proposes to champion the interests of the public in TV matters and is not timid about ruffling the industry’s most august feathers. Tonight some broadcasters were trying to find dark explanations for Mr. Minow’s attitude. In this matter the viewer possibly can be a little helpful; Mr.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Ex-FCC chief, public TV advocate Newton Minow dead at 97Former Federal Communications Commission head Newton Minow, who famously described network TV as a “vast wasteland,” has died. Minow's daughter, Nell Minow, confirmed that her father died Saturday at home in Chicago, surrounded by loved ones. Although the Chicago attorney held his FCC post for just two years in the early 1960s, Minow left a lasting stamp on the industry — promoting public television and working to televise presidential campaign debates. He was 97.
Read more »
Ex-FCC chief, public TV advocate Newton Minow dead at 97Former Federal Communications Commission head Newton Minow, who famously described network TV as a “vast wasteland,” has died
Read more »
Ex-FCC chief, public TV advocate Newton Minow dead at 97Newton N. Minow, the former Federal Communications Commission chief who in the early 1960s famously proclaimed that network television was a “vast wasteland,” died Saturday at his Chicago home. He was 97.
Read more »
Ex-FCC chief, public TV advocate Newton Minow dead at 97Newton N. Minow, who as Federal Communications Commission chief in the early 1960s famously proclaimed that network television was a 'vast wasteland,' died Saturday. He was 97.
Read more »
Ex-FCC chief, public TV advocate Newton Minow dead at 97Former Federal Communications Commission head Newton Minow, who famously described network TV as a “vast wasteland,” has died.
Read more »
Ex-FCC chief, public TV advocate Newton Minow dies at 97 in Chicago homeNewton N. Minow, who as Federal Communications Commission chief in the early 1960s famously proclaimed that network television was a 'vast wasteland,' died Saturday.
Read more »