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‘VAST WASTELAND’

Public Television Giant Newton Minow Dies at 97

He is best known for his efforts to secure funding for the iconic children’s show “Sesame Street” and for his work to create the modern televised presidential debate format.

A portrait of Newton Minow.

Reuters

By Katie Hawkinson

Newton Minow—an influential former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman who had an outsized impact on public television—died at 97 of a heart attack in his Chicago, Illinois home. He is best known for his infamous designation of television as a “vast wasteland.” Throughout his career, Minow notably fought to secure funding for the iconic children’s show Sesame Street and worked to create the modern televised presidential debate format. Minow was “a crucial figure in expanding TV’s possibilities,” Ron Simon, a curator at the Paley Center for Media, told The Washington Post.

Read it at The Washington Post

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