The Open Mind

Public broadcasting is no more immune from violating impartiality than commercial outlets. However, public broadcasting does carry a cachet of non-commercial interests and therefore a reputation for neutrally presented news and public affairs programming. For more than sixty years, The Open Mind has presented "thoughtful excursions into the world of ideas across politics, media, technology, the arts and all realms of civic life".

The program was created by Rutgers University Professor of Public Policy, Richard Heffner, and first broadcast in 1956. The format is a panel discussion and has been "a place for timely conversations about some of the most important topics facing our country and our world." Heffner credits the title of the program to an admonition from Barnard College Dean and Delegate to the 1945 U.N. Charter Conference in San Francisco, Virginia Gildersleeve, who implored people to "Keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out."

Since the time of the Federal Radio Commission (predecessor to the Federal Communications Commission), when applying for or renewing broadcasting licenses, broadcasters have been obligated to demonstrate that their broadcasts would serve "the public interest, convenience, or necessity". Traditionally, public broadcasters have been seen as doing a better job of fulfilling this mandate than commercial ones, simply because commercial broadcasters operate under a profit motive.

Heffner was a protégé of Edward R. Murrow and helped to found WNET ("Channel Thirteen"), New York City's primary public television outlet. From The Open Mind's first broadcast in May 1956, Heffner acted as primary host until his passing on December 17, 2013. Since 2014, Richard Heffner's grandson, Alexander Heffner has hosted the program.

The episodes in this sample are taken from the summer of 1960, just before the Democratic Convention, through a November 1962 discussion of Teddy Kennedy's candidacy for the Massachusetts Senate Seat that his older brother had resigned. With the possible exception of racial issues, the two-part discussion on the differences between Democrats and Republican ring as true in the post-Reagan and post-Obama era as they did at the end of the Eisenhower era.

Recent racial tensions provide an interesting perspective for the discussion of the rise of the Black Muslim movement featuring commentary by Malcolm X. The Internet Age provides an interesting window for the discussion of the Book Publishing Industry after WWII. The historical perspective puts an interesting spin on the September 30, 1962 broadcast, "What Should Be Our Policy on Cuba?", which aired just days before the Cuban Missile Crisis began.

Together, these sample broadcasts help to demonstrate the value of Old Time Radio samples for students of History.