Incapable, or helpless: countless media scholars have pointed out that, as the 1950s progressed, this approach ceded ever more programming control to Arthur Nielsen. Whether they saw it or not, what Paley and Weaver—programming geniuses both—had ultimately wrought was a system for capturing more attention than ever commercially amassed before. Once that system existed, the logic of capitalism, though not decency, dictated it could be used for only one purpose: to make as much money as could be made. That the substrate for this process was the conscious hours of millions of Americans was hardly CBS’s or NBC’s problem. In a free society, you are free to do things that aren’t good for you, whether it be smoke, drink sugary drinks, or watch game shows. Thanks to the erosion of the public interest model, broadcasters were free to air what suited them.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 494