Newton Minow

A few days ago, I asked if readers knew who Newton Minow was, and 90% of y’all did not. Since he has affected your lives, I thought I’d write about him.

Mr. Minow was a lawyer who served as the chair of the FCC from 1961 - 1963. While he is most famous for his “vast wasteland” speech, there were important technical changes that he brought to broadcasting that impact all of our lives through today.

He spoke to the National Association of Broadcasters in May of 1961. You can read the whole speech here (it’s worth it) - and here is the part everyone talks about. Remember this is FROM THE HEAD OF THE FCC TO THE BROADCASTERS:

When television is good, nothing -- not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers -- nothing is better.

But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.

You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. […]

And endlessly, commercials -- many screaming, cajoling, and offending.

And most of all, boredom. True, you'll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it.

Remember that back in the 1950’s and 1960’s, television was THE medium in the US, replacing radio. It was used to disseminate information related to the cause of helping democracy defeat communism during the Cold War. Minow wasn’t against television, he saw it as a positive - he was against BAD television. He actually viewed television as a tool for freedom.

As chair of the FCC, Minow did the following:

• He spearheaded the All Channel Receiver Act which mandated UHF reception capability, which gave rise to more channels, including PBS. Prior to that, there were only a maximum of channels up to number 13.

• He persuaded the US Congress to legislate so that there could be communications satellites. Remember, this was the 1960’s, when President Kennedy vowed that we’d get a man on the moon prior to the end of the decade: the space race was ON.

This tidbit:

“When I toured the space program with Kennedy, he was surprised to see me,” Minow said. “I said ‘Mr. President, communications satellites will be much more important than sending man into space because they will send ideas into space. Ideas last longer than men.’ “ Source.

So, for better or worse - because of Newton Minow, we have satellites, as well as an incredible number of TV channels.

Minow gave an interview in 2021, where he talked about how having more channels was a good thing.

“We did succeed in one thing and that was to enlarge choice for the viewer,” Minow said. “If you’re a sports junkie, you’ve got sports, if you want, 24 hours a day. If you’re a news junkie, you’ve got news. If you like old movies as I do, you can find a station with old movies.” Source.

As an aside, Minow hired Barack Obama in 1988 as a summer intern at his law firm, where he met the future Mrs. Obama. Rumor has it that Minow ran into them at a movie theatre where they went on their first date, but helped keep their secret, since they didn’t want their co-workers to know.

In addition to many awards and honors, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

Newton Minow passed last year at the age of 95.