Common Sense Bestows Genachowski With Minow Award

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski Thursday night accepted an award from Common Sense Media -- he is a former board member of the group -- with many nods to the award's namesake, former FCC Chairman Newton Minow.

Chairman Genachowski, though, did not use it as a platform for staking out any new ground on the issue of content control and kids. The speech came the day after comments were due to the FCC on that subject as part of the FCC's review of its implementation of the Children's Television Act and how and whether it should be updated for the digital age. According to a copy of his speech (see link below), Chairman Genachowski used the time to praise Minow, who famously called TV a "vast wasteland," but who, Genachowski pointed out, also helped usher in the satellite age, UHF TV, and public broadcasting, including helping to fund Sesame Street.