Sigh. This is one of the reasons that I will miss newspapers when they are gone. Folks, one of the key tenets of traditional journalism is that advertising sales department is never, but never, allowed to ask anything of the editorial department. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and it's easy to see how little requests to change content, "if you don't mind," could over time undermine the integrity of a news organization.
Refer to "Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media" [1] for an understanding how the editorial content of mainstream newspapers is almost universally influenced by advertising dollars.
