Newton N. Minow Cause of Death

Newton N. Minow, the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, died of a heart attack on May 6 2023, at his home in Chicago. He was 97.

The Associated Press confirmed Minow’s death on Saturday afternoon.

Newton Minow was the FCC’s chief for two years during President John F. Kennedy’s administration, and he made headlines in 1961 when he called network television “a vast wasteland.”

Minow left the F.C.C. in 1963 to become an executive at Encyclopaedia Britannica. Then, in 1965, he joined a Chicago law firm as a partner, where he remained until 1991 when he was promoted to senior counsel.

President Barack Obama bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Minow in 2016, the nation’s highest civilian honour.

Minow spent his career writing books and articles, lecturing, campaigning for programming reforms, and serving as co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates board

Newton Minow is survived by his daughters, Nell, Martha and Mary, and his three grandchildren. His wife, Josephine Baskin, died in 2022.