There is something wrong with the fundamental national policy under which television operates. The principle of that policy is that for all practical purposes television shall be operated wholly for private profit... to capture the largest mass audience which can be made to look at and listen to the most profitable advertising... while television is supposed to be free, it has in fact become the creature, the servant, and indeed the prostitute, or merchandising.
-Walter Lippman, quoted in Wu, The Master Switch, 156