President Barack Obama Presenting the Medal of Freedom to Newton N. Minow

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Newton Minow: Washington Post obituary by Adam Bernstein

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  Newton Minow, FCC chairman who assailed ‘vast wasteland’ of TV, dies at 97 He had towering impact on broadcasting by helping shape public television, satellite communications and presidential debates By  Adam Bernstein May 6, 2023 at 1:57 p.m. EDT   Newton Minow, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, appears before the House Antitrust Subcommittee in 1963. (Anonymous/ASSOCIATED PRESS) Listen 11 min Add to your saved stories Save Gift  Article Share Newton N. Minow, the Federal Communications Commission chairman who in 1961 memorably assailed TV as a “vast wasteland” and went on to have a towering impact on broadcasting by helping shape public television, satellite communications and presidential debates, died May 6 at his home in Chicago. He was 97. The cause was a heart attack, said his daughter Nell Minow, a top authority on corporate governance. Mr. Minow was a politically connected Chicago legal grandee and boardroom Zelig whose professional li...
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Tribute from former FCC Chair Tom Wheeler

From Brookings : The most demanding speech any Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must deliver is the annual address to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention. The echoes of Chairman Newton Minow’s 1961 “vast wasteland” speech to that organization have haunted every word in every Chair’s script for over six decades. Those of us who followed Newt were only aspirants to his vision of a public interest-driven FCC with the responsibility to challenge those it regulated. On May 6, 2023, Newton Minow  died ; his 97 years were ones of continual contributions to his country and our national communications systems. Nineteen sixty-one, the first year of the Kennedy Administration, was the height of the power of television broadcasters. If a political leader or advertiser wanted to reach America, the path led through the three national networks and their local broadcast outlets. The  message  Minow delivered challenged those powerhouses to be ...
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