Advertising

There seems to be a debate about advertising as a business model. I have been thinking about this on an off long but was inspired to write this post by Fred Wilson’s recent post. My comment is to ask a question: Why is it that content publishers get to sell access to my eyeballs to advertisers? I understand that for ‘traditional mass media’ there is no practical way for me as a consumer to sell that access directly to an advertiser….. but in the enlightened internet age, why can’t I have a direct relationship with the advertisers and decide who gets access to my eyeballs… why does a content publisher get this exclusive right?