$3 billion

Ralph Nader commenting on the approximately 3 billion dollars spent on campaign ads this past election cycle:

the public airways, as we know, belong to the people, and they’re the landlords, and the radio and TV stations are the licensees. They’re the tenants, so to speak. They pay no money to the FCC for their annual license. And therefore, it’s really quite persuasive, were we to have a public policy to condition modestly the license to this enormously lucrative control of the public airways twenty-four hours a day by these TV and radio stations and say, as part of the reciprocity for controlling this commons, so to speak, you have to allow certain amount of time, free time, on radio and TV for ballot-qualified candidates. I supported this and talked about this in my presidential campaigns over the years. And third party candidates are doing that. But today, as you say, the money coming into the radio and TV stations, Amy, are so massive they completely overwhelm the profits from soap and toothpaste and hot dogs and cars, and the elections have become a commodity, a profit center for these radio and TV stations.

(Democracy Now, Nov. 2, 2010)