[reaperducer]

You can claim 'separation of church and state' and say that the ad department isn't telling the journalists what they can and can't say, but journalists don't work in a vacuum and editors and executives won't run pieces that they know will cause them to lose sponsors.

Citation needed.

Primarily because I've worked in a number of newsrooms, and there was most certainly a separation between editorial and advertising. Sales people weren't even allowed in the same wing or on the same floors as the reporters.

Contrary to your tinfoil hat suppositions, the reporting and advertising departments aren't all buddy-buddy. In all the years I worked in newsrooms with 15-200 people, I never once knew, spoke to, or could even name someone in the advertising department.

I will admit that's not true for very small outlets under 15 reporters, but that simply happens because you share a bathroom, lunchroom, hallway, parking lot, etc... with everyone on staff.

[Mirioron]

I don't really agree with the parent poster, but you don't really need someone to tell journalists what they can and can't write to get them to push your agenda. What you can do instead is to hire people who share the ideas you want to push. This way they'll write what you want them to write without you having to tell them.