Newton Minow coined an unforgettable phrase to describe the programming on television: “vast wasteland.” In 1961, the new, young head of the Federal Communications Commission became an overnight celebrity when he addressed the national association of broadcast executives, daring them to watch their own stations for a full day. “You will see,” he said, “a procession of game shows, violence, audience participation shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, Western bad men, Western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons.” Even after he left the role, Minow continued to push for public-interest programming. “When television is good,” he said, “nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse.”
Minow was born into a middle-class Milwaukee family, said The…