Vast wasteland newton minow biography
Minow scrabble!
Television and the Public Interest
1961 speech by Newton N. Minow
"Television and the Public Interest" was a speech given by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Newton N.
Minow to the convention of the National Association of Broadcasters on May 9, 1961.
Minnow
Popularly known as the "Vast Wasteland speech", it was Minow's first major speech after he was appointed chairman of the FCC by then President John F. Kennedy.
Summary
In the speech, Minow referred to American commercial television programming as a "vast wasteland" and advocated for programming in the public interest.
In hindsight, the speech addressed the end of a Golden Age of Television that had run through the 1950s, contrasting the highbrow programs of that decade (Minow specifically cited Westinghouse Studio One and Playhouse 90, both of which had ended in the previous few years, as examples of "the much bemoaned good old days," and later cited Kraft Television Theatre, Victory at Sea, See It
