Minow's 'Vast Wasteland' Speech

Date: May 9, 1961 • Location: Bloomingdale, United States

In a speech to U.S. broadcasters, Newton Minow, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, described commercial television programming as "a vast wasteland".

Newton Norman Minow was an American attorney who served as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He is famous for his 1961 speech referring to television as a "vast wasteland". While still maintaining a law practice, Minow served as the honorary consul general of Singapore in Chicago, beginning in 2001.