Maybe I'm jaded into believing there really is no such thing as "objective reporting" anymore, seems everyone has a conflict of interest or 3 these days.
The good publications work very hard to firewall content production and ad sales. Having watched this process in a few "good publications", I think it can work pretty well.
I agree with your statement in principle, the problem arises when there may be warranted negative publicity involving one of their paid advertisers. Obviously as a business owner you don't want to jeopardize your source of income, but as a "journalist" are you really staying true to mission to be objective? And thus...a conflict of interest is born.
Maybe I'm jaded into believing there really is no such thing as "objective reporting" anymore, seems everyone has a conflict of interest or 3 these days.