Newton minow vast wasteland

It’s hard to envision, in the era of aggressive 24-hour political coverage, a government official telling television broadcasters what to do.

But on May 9, 1961, at a meeting of the National Association of Broadcasters, new Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minow did just that.

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

But when television is bad, nothing is worse,” Minow told his audience. He challenged the broadcasters to sit in front of their television sets for a day, without distraction.

Then he delivered the line that would make front-page headlines the next morning: “I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.”

Minow’s speech “shocked a complacent industry,” said his daughter, Martha Minow, dean of Harvard Law School (HLS).

“He called for imagination, excellence, and creativity.” At Austin Hall Monday evening, both Minows hoped to sti