Posted on November 18, 2016 at 9:43 pm
The nation’s highest civilian honor is the Medal of Freedom, and the White House has announced that my dad will be receiving it this Tuesday.
Here is a brief interview with my dad, from the local CBS affiliate in Chicago.
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/11/18/newton-minow-asked-is-tv-still-a-vast-wasteland/
Posted on September 9, 2016 at 10:51 pm
My parents, Newton and Josephine Minow, saw Southside With You, and so my dad wrote an article for the Huffington Post about the real story behind the scene in the film where Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson run into a senior lawyer and his wife, characters based on my parents. Barack Obama was working as a summer intern in my dad’s office at Sidley Austin in Chicago, recommended by my sister Martha, his professor. The firm assigned Michelle Robinson to be his supervisor.
My wife Jo and I went to the theater at Water Tower Place in Chicago to see the Spike Lee movie, “Do the Right Thing.” We walked into the theater and saw Barack and Michelle buying popcorn at the concession stand. It was their first date.
They were startled and embarrassed, because she did not want anyone in the office to know they were seeing each other outside of work. They thought a supervisor should not be dating a summer associate. Jo and I reassured them that there was no problem, and we went in together to watch the film.
They became friends and Dad goes on to talk about an important conversation he had with then-Senator Obama in 2006.
In 2006, I wrote an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune urging him to run for president. I said he combined a first-class temperament with a first-class intellect. Later that year, he asked to meet with me and with my lifelong friend, the late Abner Mikva, because he was deciding whether he was ready — and he country was ready — for him to run. His most important question was whether Ab and I, each the father of three spectacular daughters, thought he could be a good father if he campaigned and was elected president. We told him he would see more of his daughters as President than he did as a senator, and I thought of that conversation many times as I read about the Obamas’ nightly family dinners in the White House.
My best memories of my childhood include the family dinners at our house and I am very touched that Barack Obama understood that my dad could guide him on parenting as well as politics.
Posted on May 9, 2016 at 8:00 am
Here is my wonderful dad, Newton Minow, on his famous “vast wasteland” speech, delivered when he was the new Kennedy Administration FCC Chairman to the National Association of Broadcasters on May 9, 1961, 55 years ago today.
Although he said many good things about television, producer Sherwood Schwartz was so insulted by Dad’s comments he decided to name the sinking ship on “Gilligan’s Island” after him — the S.S. Minnow. When he was chairman of the FCC his primary goal was giving viewers more choices, through the establishment of what would become PBS, and technological improvements like cable television, UHF channels, and cable TV. He has since worked on many more important projects including the development of the Presidential Debates. He still serves as Vice Chair of the Debates Commission. And he’s the world’s best dad.
There is a a wonderful one-hour documentary about him from Mike Leonard, which is available online. It includes many of our favorite stories: Eleanor Roosevelt’s call to ask Dad to intervene on behalf of Reverend Robert L.T. Smith, a black candidate in Mississippi who was not allowed to buy commercial time, LBJ yelling at him about Vietnam, his now unclassified role during the Cuban missile crisis, and his telling JFK why a communications satellite would be more important than putting a man on the moon. And it has some of our favorite family memories, too.
We had a wonderful 90th birthday party celebration for Dad in January and his colleagues had a very cute children’s book made in his honor about a new and a minnow. I have one to give away. Send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with Minnow in the subject line and tell me the worst show you ever saw on television. Don’t forget your address! (US addresses only) I’ll pick a winner at random on May 16, 2016.
Posted on January 7, 2015 at 8:00 am
New York’s public television station WNET, ran this terrific “Open Mind” interview with my dad, Newton Minow, about his experiences at the FCC during the Kennedy Administration and the early days of PBS.
Posted on May 9, 2014 at 8:54 am
53 years ago today my dad, the new 35-year-old Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission appointed by President John F. Kennedy, made a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters that was on every list of the most influential speeches of the 2oth century. We are very proud of him. Last weekend, he was presented with the Lincoln Award by the Governor of Illinois. It is the state’s highest award for public service.
And did you know that television writer/producer Sherwood Schwartz was so angry about the speech he decided to name the sinking ship on his new television show after my dad? Yes, that’s how the S.S. Minnow on “Gilligan’s Island” got its name. Really.
