Newton Minow was appointed by President John F. Kennedy as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in 1961. Minow famously dubbed television a "vast wasteland" and called for programming reforms to better serve the public interest. He is a former law partner of Adlai Stevenson II, was chairman of PBS, and co-chair of the presidential debates in 1976 and 1980. He is currently co-vice chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which has organized the debates for the last two decades. Minow's book, written with longtime collaborator Craig LaMay, Inside the Presidential Debates: Their Improbable Past and Promising Future, is a fascinating look into the origins of presidential debates with suggestions for their improvement today.