In honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth, select PBS stations will rebroadcast Mike Leonard’s wonderful documentary on the remarkable life of Newton Minow. While chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, appointed by President Kennedy, he revolutionized television by expanding viewer choice through three major pieces of legislation: the creation of PBS, the launch of the first telecommunications satellite, and the requirement that all new televisions provide access to channels on the ultra-high frequency band. He later championed closed captioning and helped secure initial financing for “Sesame Street.”
He mentored dozens of young people, including a summer intern named Barack Obama. He never got into a taxi without asking the driver’s entire life story, and when his daughters visited his office, he made sure they met his friends, the elevator operator, whose daughter he had helped get into college, and the mail delivery man whose wife he had helped with her immigration problems.
In honor of his centennial, we are republishing this tribute from his daughter, our editor Nell Minow. The documentary is also available for free here.
On May 9, 1961, my father, Newton Minow, then the 35-year-old chairman of the FCC, made three important appearances. In Washington, he delivered his famous “vast wasteland” speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, telling them that although “when television is good, nothing is better,” he expected them to do more to meet their statutory obligation to serve “the public interest, convenience and necessity.” He then returned to the FCC office, where he met with Elizabeth Campbell to sign the original license for WETA, the nation’s capital’s first educational television station, now producer of the Ken Burns documentaries and the evening Newshour. And then he flew to Chicago to attend my Brownie troop’s father-daughter dinner.
Today, on his 96th birthday, I think, as I so often do, of how these three events defined his character: inspiring those around him to do better, supporting the visions of those who widely disseminate enriching cultural content and trusted sources of information, and always putting his family first. In subsequent decades, this was reflected in his efforts as founder and chairman of the board of PBS, as a member of the board of directors of CBS, and in his contribution to the creation of the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), of which he still serves as vice chairman. He worked to require the V-chip and closed captioning, helped secure startup funding for “Sesame Street” and advocated for the cancellation of the radio license of a station that aired violently racist and anti-Semitic programming. And he and my mother will celebrate their 73rd wedding anniversary this spring.
Dad was awarded our nation’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, by Barack Obamaperhaps in part because President Obama met Michelle while he was an intern in my father’s office, and they assigned Michelle as his supervisor. Her charming story of meeting them on their first date at a screening of “Do the Right Thing” is here. An honor he cherishes almost as much inspires the naming of the SS Minnow on “Gilligan’s Island,” the sinking ship during the three-hour tour, intended as an insult to my father because of his criticism of television. He and “Gilligan’s Island” creator Sherwood Schwartz later exchanged cordial letters. My father is always looking for common ground. He contacted President Trump’s appointee to the FCC as soon as the nomination was announced. He said: “I know we disagree on many issues, but let’s find one we can work on together. » They co-wrote an opinion article on telemedicine.
He remains very involved in current issues. My sister Martha, former dean of Harvard Law School, will be the first to tell you that the highlight of her recent book, Saving the News, is Dad’s introduction, titled “From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg.” He discusses the profound challenges that technological change poses to the public interest and the foundations of democracy. As always, he also sees the opportunities. He is comfortable writing about AI algorithms and deep fakes, but always within the context of an unquenchable optimism and unwavering integrity that shines through everything he does. One day he spoke to a group of young lawyers and told them that the most important thing was to gain the client’s trust. An enthusiastic participant raised his hand to ask a question. “How can we do this? “Well,” Dad said, “you can start by being trustworthy.” Happy birthday to the best father in the world and a true, trustworthy American hero.
