Newton Minnow died this morning at his home in Chicago, 5/6/2023, age 97.
Plenty of obits have been written. I was looking for a locally written
obituary. The Sun-Times got it from AP. He's a long-time media figure;
this is an embarassment.

The famous "vast wasteland" comment while chairman of FCC was, in
part, his objection to the quality of entertainment. One of the shows
he was complaining about was The Fugitive, created and produced by Roy
Huggins. Generally, Huggins was considered to make good television. Minnow
didn't like tv.

He was a long time member of the board of the local public tv station.

https://apnews.com/article/newton-minow-dies-tv-vast-wasteland-3aa9234488f44df9b7f59f8072e1c8a1

You beat me in the posting rush, Adam; thanks for noting this hugely important obit.

It's not too often that a mere two-word phrase can in time turn an obscure bureaucrat* into a bona fide household name, but it sure worked out that way for the late Minnow--whom I always found to be an engaging personality whenever I saw him interviewed (which is not more than three or four times since he uttered those famous words better than a half-century ago; that is, he clearly was no media-hungry public figure).

But what I NEVER heard Minnow say, though, is that his legendary two-word assessment even MORE applies to the internet in general and social media in particular.

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
-------------------------------------
* Though, I believe, a presidentially-appointed one, nonetheless.
==================https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_N._Minow

ADDENDUM:

Oh, and I was thoroughly ignorant that Minnow had it in for The Fugitive, so thanks too for that tidbit, Adam.

And you're correct: The Fugitive was a consistently well-crafted ABC series indeed, and a thus serious exception to Minnow's now-part-of-the-culture phrase. (Not to mention "a Quinn Martin production"!)

STYBLE/Florida

On Saturday, May 6, 2023 at 4:53:20 PM UTC-4, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> Newton Minnow died this morning at his home in Chicago, 5/6/2023, age 97.
>
> https://apnews.com/article/newton-minow-dies-tv-vast-wasteland-3aa9234488f44df9b7f59f8072e1c8a1

Correction: his name was spelled Minow, not Minnow.

In <20e71eb9-daac-43af-bb23-4a223d94d21fn@googlegroups.com> Diner <bwaystars@gmail.com> writes:

>On Saturday, May 6, 2023 at 4:53:20=E2=80=AFPM UTC-4, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>> Newton Minnow died this morning at his home in Chicago, 5/6/2023, age 97.=
>=20
>>=20
>> https://apnews.com/article/newton-minow-dies-tv-vast-wasteland-3aa9234488=
>f44df9b7f59f8072e1c8a1

>Correction: his name was spelled Minow, not Minnow.

However, the ship was the "S.S. Minnow" (two "n's").

--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

Thanks for the correction of my absolutely-inattentive misspelling of the late Minow, Sirs Diner and Danny...which might have been a TAD excusable were I an avid angler; I can be accurately called many things (and many alt-obiters have done just that over the years), but fisherman is a decidedly INapplicable term.

Oh, and Danny: isn't ship a bit too grandiose a term to apply to the clearly non-stormworthy charter boat Jonas Quimby captained, I mean skippered? That is, wasn't the appellation S.S. Minnow the sitcom writers' way of connoting to viewers it wasn't nearly of "ship" classification?

STYBLE/Florida

radioacti...@gmail.com <radioactiveseattle@gmail.com> wrote:

>Thanks for the correction of my absolutely-inattentive misspelling of
>the late Minow, Sirs Diner and Danny...

Huh? You can't misappropriate my spelling getting flamed.

What? Another mistake by Mr. B S ? Maybe you should concentrate more on accuracy, rather than your "clever" words and phrases. What a crashing bore.
Zzzzzzzzz.

danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> wrote:
> In <20e71eb9-daac-43af-bb23-4a223d94d21fn@googlegroups.com> Diner <bwaystars@gmail.com> writes:
>
>>On Saturday, May 6, 2023 at 4:53:20=E2=80=AFPM UTC-4, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>>> Newton Minnow died this morning at his home in Chicago, 5/6/2023, age 97.=
>>=20
>>>=20
>>> https://apnews.com/article/newton-minow-dies-tv-vast-wasteland-3aa9234488=
>>f44df9b7f59f8072e1c8a1
>
>>Correction: his name was spelled Minow, not Minnow.
>
> However, the ship was the "S.S. Minnow" (two "n's").
>

(And for context,Gilligan's motorboat was indeed named
with reference to the now-newly-deceased,one-n'ed former FCC
chairman).

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.