(Editor’s Note: The following are exc...
(Editor’s Note: The following are excerpts from coverage of Newton Minow’s “Vast Wasteland” speech in the May 15, 1961, edition of Television Digest, the predecessor of Communications Daily and the founding publication of today’s Warren Communications News. Note that back then the company -- which was already 15 years old -- employed a distinctive “telegraphic” style.)
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MINOW & COLLINS -- ‘COP’ & ‘POP': Shock. Fear. Anger. Dismay. Confusion. Those words are perhaps too mild to describe reaction of broadcasters to FCC Chmn. Minow’s May 9 speech at NAB convention in Washington.
Feelings were so high that some resentment rubbed off on NAB’s new Pres. LeRoy Collins, who had taken broadcasters to task in his own way in speech May 8. The speeches are so important, bound to serve as fundamental references for months if not years, that we've reprinted full tests in special supplement herewith. We urge you to study them carefully and keep them close at hand. [Minow’s speech is available at http://xrl.us/bkgpcj.]
What now? Though there will be a drive to “contain” Minow -- through his fellow Commissioners, Congress and White House -- we find little evidence that it will be successful. FCC majority which generally shares Minow’s views certainly looks as if it will continue to do so. ...
At week’s end, after several days of reaction to his speech, Minow told us he was confident FCC had backing where it counted. His staff reported receiving more than 300 calls, wires and letters -- every one of them commendatory and including praise from man-in-the-street and high Congressional and administration figures. TV critics and editorialists sang hosannahs. Exceptions: Wall Street Journal and columnist David Lawrence. ...
Broadcaster reaction at convention was almost unanimously critical, of course. Most of it stemmed from the question as old as broadcasting itself: How can FCC do anything to “improve programming” without indulging in censorship and violating First Amendment? ...
Now, what does FCC want stations to do? Scanning & rescanning Minow’s words and looking at FCC’s actions of the last year, we come up with this excerpt from his speech:
"What the Commission asks of you is to make a conscientious, good-faith effort to serve the public interest. Every one of you serves a community in which the people would benefit by educational, religious, instructive or other public-service programming. ... Make a serious, genuine effort to put on that programming.” ...
It’s not at all inconceivable that broadcast-regulation issue could ignite a major battle in Congress -- and that [President John] Kennedy, despite his current support of Minow, may wind up curbing or dumping him to gain votes for issues he considers more vital.
(From a separate editorial on the “Vast Wasteland” speech in the same issue of Television Digest:)
This is no time for indignation, for bitterness, for argument. ...
It was strange, on the subject of public service, to hear the entire medium tarred with a brush that should have been limited to a mere handful of station operators who are shirking their responsibility.
And it was difficult to reconcile the Chairman’s abhorrence for government censorship with his warning that license renewals will depend on whether a station is trying to meet community needs -- in the judgment of a government commission.
But it was one hell of a speech. ... His basic message was undeniable.
(Final editor’s note: The phrase that came to define Minow’s speech, “vast wasteland,” did not appear in TVD’s coverage or the editorial.)