Newton N. Minow, who as President John F. Kennedy’s new F.C.C. chairman in 1961 despatched shock waves via an industry and touched a nerve in a nation hooked on banality and mayhem by calling American tv “an unlimited wasteland,” died on Saturday at his dwelling in Chicago . He was 97.
His daughter Nell Minow mentioned the trigger was a coronary heart assault.
On May 9, 1961, nearly 4 months after President Kennedy referred to as upon Americans to resume their dedication to freedom across the globe, Mr. Minow, a bespectacled bureaucrat who had just lately been put in control of the Federal Communications Commission, acquired up earlier than 2,000 broadcast executives at a luncheon in Washington and invited them to observe tv for a day.
“Stay there with no e-book, journal, newspaper, profit-and-loss sheet or ranking e-book to distract you, and preserve your eyes glued to that set till the station indicators off,” Mr. Minow mentioned. “I can guarantee you that you’ll observe an unlimited wasteland.”
The viewers sat aghast as he went on:
“You will see a procession of recreation exhibits, violence, viewers participation exhibits, components comedies about completely unbelievable households, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, homicide, Western unhealthy males, Western good males, non-public eyes, gangsters, extra violence and cartoons. And endlessly, commercials — many screaming, cajoling and offending. And most of all, boredom.”
Content Source: www.nytimes.com
