The other article was tripe. People were upvoting based on worthiness of the story, not on the particular writing at the original site. Now everyone can read actual facts and come up with their own opinions.
So, I submitted the original story. When it was submitted, the article on the page was much different that what it appears to be now. I just came back from lunch to find my submission "overridden". In this case I don't mind because of the situation, and I would rather have an article with more journalistic integrity take center stage, but there were some good comment threads going on the original submission. However, it did seem odd that it happened.
Although it should be noted that much of the editorialized parts of the story seem to have been added quite a bit after it was submitted. The article is currently 2-3x as long as when I first read it. At least don't blame the OP.
It was Jalopnik otherwise known as the hand that feeds the Top Gear news section. If you read TheRegister you might understand a little. Just because someone dies you shouldn't stop acting like yourself.
If there are rules, the only plausible reason not to announce the rules is so that you can change them without having to give notice. This assumes that the rules haven't been announced, of course; maybe they have.