Exactly who, and what perspective, does he claim are the secret evil suborners of perjury? If it is the Associated Press and the owners of the newspapers, he has a point. My reading of it indicates that those are EXACTLY who he is talking about - the signers of the pay checks - but I could be wrong.
I think that much is clear - but the issue is whether he was claiming that advertisers were calling the calling the tune or whether he was admitting that the very claim of the importance of journalism itself was at fault. The latter is the truth, but my money is on the former as the animus of the quotation.
Hmmm? Never considered that. You could be right but I don't know that it would be possible to learn that from this source material alone.
What I can tell you, from first hand knowledge, is that no matter how well done the story WILL NOT run if the publisher doesn't like it regardless of advertisers.