Title: Abandoned in the wasteland
First published: 1995
Description: In 1961, when Newton N. Minow was President Kennedy's chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, he astonished the American public with his blunt criticism of television broadcasting as a "vast wasteland." To Mr. Minow today, after decades in communications and public service, and to his colleague Craig L.

LaMay, the problem is more urgent than ever, for we all - broadcasters, parents, public officials, and teachers - have abandoned our children to a wasteland of vacuous, often violent, and openly consumerist television programming that represents none of the values we claim to cherish and that threatens our future.

The commercial interests dominating television today argue that the Constitution gives them the right to broadcast whatever they wish. But Minow and LaMay persuasively demonstrate that this is a false application of the First Amendment. They remind us that broadcasters are required by law to serve the public interest, and that the Supreme Court and Congress regard service to children as a broadcaster's obligation under law.

They argue that the First Amendment can be used on behalf of children, to help make television a force that will nurture and not harm them. They offer many hardheaded, workable ideas for an effective children's television policy (America is alone among the Western democracies in not yet having one) and for new ways to ensure that our children travel safely on the information superhighway.
Subjects: Television advertising, Law and legislation, Sex on television, Television programs for children, Violence on television, Children's television programs, Télévision, Émissions pour enfants, Droit, Publicité télévisée, Violence à la télévision, Sexualité à la télévision, Kind, Rechtsprechung, Kinderfernsehen, Jugendfernsehen, Recht, Fernsehwirkung, Violence in television, United States, Sex in television, USA, Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer, Television, law and legislation
Places: United States
LC classification: KF2840 .M56 1995