Newton Minow, dead at 97, had a prescient warning for consumers back in 1961. He even put the term, based on a TS Elliot poem, “vast wasteland”, into the popular lexicon.
He was talking about T.V. As John F. Kennedy’s relatively inexperienced Federal Communications Chair, Minow became aghast at the content that was being pumped out on television.
Before a hearing on congress, Minow challenged people to stay glued to the television set all day until the channel signed off.
“I can assure that what you’d observe is a vast wasteland. 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.”
His words, to this day, still ring true, and might explain one reason why television is on the precipitous decline, as viewers gravitate towards more substantiative media.
He made these criticisms when TV was popular for only eleven years at that point. The smut, as he saw it, was just the tip of the iceberg compared to the decades that followed.
He did try to do all he could, however, to add some educational and meaningful programming to TV, as much of an uphill climb as that might have been.
He was one of the main funders of Sesame Street and an early supporter of PBS, helping it get off the ground. He also proposed televising the 1960 presidential debate, and was instrumental in getting subsequent debates organized from 1976 onwards after a gap after the 1960 one.
Before, no one worried about the content that was being put on television. Or that their kids were watching and that this box could play parent. Minnow was the first person to warn the public, aiming to safeguard the innocence of our nation’s kids.
He later received a presidential medal of freedom for his efforts, and it seemed to be most deserved.
Take a look at the speech that shook the nation for yourself:
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