Newton Minow, Former FCC Chief Who Declared Network TV a ‘Vast Wasteland,’ Dies at 97
variety.comCharna Flam Newton N. Minow, the former Federal Communications Commission chief, died May 6 at his home in Chicago, after suffering from a heart attack.
He was 97. Minow’s death was confirmed by the Associated Press on Saturday afternoon. Minow served for two years as the FCC chief during President John F.
Kennedy’s administration and made waves in 1961 when he called network television “a vast wasteland.” In his historic speech, Minow proclaimed that “you will see a procession of game shows, violence, audience participation 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.” In 1949, Minow graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor’s degree in speech and political science.
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