Newton Minow and the Vast Wasteland Speech, May 9, 1961

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.

Is Television Still a “Vast Wasteland?”

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.

My Dad and Television’s “Vast Wasteland”

Posted on May 9, 2013 at 9:00 am

52 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.

At that time, network news on television was pretty much limited to 15 minutes once a day. Children’s programming was local and had very little educational component.

Here’s a look at some of what was on the air back then:

And here’s what dad had to say as an update.

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Television

A Tribute to My Dad and his “Vast Wasteland” Speech

Posted on May 9, 2012 at 9:58 am

51 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.

Related Tags:

Television

My Dad at Harvard

Posted on September 15, 2011 at 3:54 pm

My wonderful dad, Newton Minow, was honored at Harvard this week for half a century of public service in working to make the greatest amount of choice and the broadest range of media resources available. He talked about the five decades that have taken us from three networks with 15 minutes a day of national news programming operating under the “fairness doctrine” to the plugged-in, omni-media world we live in now. As we commemorate the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, remember that they occurred before YouTube and Twitter. He reminded the audience that the debates about media have evolved but the issues remain:

“Television had become the dominant form of communication in our country, but there had been very little discussion about what that meant in terms of public responsibility and public interest. I was determined to start that discussion, even though I knew my speech would not be well-received,” he said, adding that his speech prompted Gilligan’s Island executive producer Sherwood Schwartz to name the ship that ran aground “the S.S. Minnow.”

Minow believes that the problems that plagued television and communication 50 years ago are still present today. He said that the discussion of public responsibility that was missing then is still neglected now….

“When President Kennedy gave his Cuban Missile Crisis speech, there were no pundits on after he gave it. They cut back to regular programming, so the public could absorb it,” she said. “I don’t know what we do about the fact that we need the public to push the country to social and political change, and leadership needs that relationship to get the public engaged, but the media has made that difficult.”

A webcast of the event, which featured Jonathan Alter of Bloomberg and Anne Marie Lipinski (formerly editor of the Chicago Tribune) is on Harvard’s site. Now he is in Washington, D.C., where he will go to the White House for the kick-off of one of his most recent and most important projects, the Digital Promise (now called the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies).

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Television