The ‘vast wasteland,’ reconsidered
It’s hard to envision, in the era of aggressive 24-hour political coverage, a government official telling television broadcasters what to do. But on May 9, 1961, at a meeting of the National Association of Broadcasters, new Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minow did just that. “When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines, or newspapers — nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse,” Minow told his audience. He challenged the broadcasters to sit in front of their television sets for a day, without distraction. Then he delivered the line that would make front-page headlines the next morning: “I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.” Minow’s speech “shocked a complacent industry,” said his daughter, Martha Minow, dean of Harvard Law School (HLS). “He called for imagination, excellence, and creativity.” At Austin Hall Monday evening, both Minows hoped to stir a...