"...This instinct is so powerful that it has given those who peddle
discredited theories of government regulation a new lease on life. Newton
Minow, for instance. President Kennedy's selection to head the Federal
Communications Commission famously uttered the indictment (in a 1961 speech
to the broadcaster's convention) that the entire medium had produced
nothing but a "vast wasteland," an entertainment Siberia.
Minow updated his complaint in 1995's Abandoned in the Wasteland, where he
courageously advanced a frontal attack on the American system of free
speech. This despite the grave personal danger: "For half a century," he
wrote, "anyone who has questioned the American commercial television system
has been shouted down as
a censor." But nothing could cow the former commissioner, who held before
him an impregnable shield: "I believe the public interest requires us to
ask what
we can do for our children."
What we can do for our children is regulate TV. And so, the FCC has come to
the rescue with beefed-up rules about how much educational programming your
local TV station will be required to display as part of its license deal.
We should not dwell on the somewhat embarrassing fact that the FCC has
ostensibly required commercial broadcasters to perform such public service
since even before Newton Minow was its able chairman..."
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/hazlett/rahazlett48.htm
