Word: minow
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Thank God for men like Newton Minow [May 19]. The argument used by spokesmen for the TV industry could well be used by the dope peddler: "I'm only giving them what they want." Since a great mass of our population is made up of uneducated, unimaginative people, who would sit in front of the TV set and watch beep signals if that was the only program available, the leaders of the industry have the definite responsibility to set standards at a high level...
Television's Emmy awards came just a week too late this year. Had the industry waited a few days, it could have presented Newton N. Minow, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, with the plaque for "most impolitic performance of the year in a good cause." As things stand now, however, Mr. Minow will receive no plaque, but, instead, an ill-deserved rebuff...
Earlier this month Mr. Minow went before the National Association of Broadcasters, and told them bluntly that violence and medicocrity make contemporary television programming a "vast wasteland" which "squanders the public's airwaves." And, in words even less welcome to his audience, he promised the use the now virtually dormant powers of the FCC to improve the quality of programs. Specifically, he promised to make the triennial renewal of station licenses more than a formality, and, through public hearings, demand that the stations prove that they are living up to their pledge to operate "in the public interest...
Neither of the objections offered by opponents of the reorganization program carries much weight. Their principal argument, that the plan would give too much power to the chairman of the commission has been propounded most vigorously (not unexpectedly) by the other members of the commission. Mr. Minow has pointed out in vain that the chairman could not exceed the powers granted to him by the seven-member commission...
...Minow, "I hope these hearings will arouse no little interest...