59 Years Ago Today: My Father Told TV Executives They Had Produced a Vast Wasteland
On May 9, 1961, my father, Newton Minow, delivered a speech that continues to inspire the conversation about media and was recently an answer on Jeopardy!
He was President Kennedy’s new Chairman of the FCC, just 35 years old, and in his first major address he told the National Association of Broadcasters that while there was much to admire on television, too much of it was a “vast wasteland.” His contributions to broadcasting include the launching of the first telecommunications satellite…