What we learn about Paley from this period is, in fact, slightly ambiguous. The most straightforward theory is that, in the end, his competitive instincts ruled. The game of television was audience aggregation, and so that is the game he played to win. He was, therefore, a merchant of attention in the most undiluted sense, not unlike Benjamin Day of the New York Sun, who gave audiences exactly what he could tell they wanted. Unlike others, Paley had no real designs to manipulate or enlighten, unless that might improve ratings. His only aim was to harvest as much of his product as he could, in as pure a form as he could, for sale to the highest bidder. As David Halberstam suggested, he “was totally without sentiment: he knew what was good and would sell, what was bad and would sell, and what was good and would not sell, and he never confused one with another.”

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 492