The big three broadcast TV networks are cutting back on their prime time coverage of the major political conventions. Tonight, the opening night of the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., ABC, CBS and NBC offer no coverage at all. Both ABC and CBS will air not just their regular shows, but reruns, instead.

We get it. The networks are businesses, after all. They have shareholders to answer to, and dividends to pay. However, we expect that we will no longer be treated to hand-wringing exposes and brow-furrowing “news” reports from these same networks or their affiliates about “corporate social responsibility.” That is the idea that businesses have a greater duty than profit. It is not the shareholders to whom corporations must answer, but the public.

A network that airs a sitcom rerun instead of major speeches being made at a major party convention would look pretty stupid lecturing other businesses about the need to “put people over profits.”