Here's a quote straight from Dr. Sternberg:
I did not act unilaterally or surreptitiously in my handling of the Meyer paper. Within the Society, I raised and discussed the paper and its potentially controversial nature with a scientist on the staff of the Museum of Natural History and a fellow member of the Council of the BSW soon after its submission and before deciding to send it out for peer review, and then again after receiving the peer reviews and before sending notification to Dr. Meyer of acceptance. I discussed the paper with this scientist on at least three occasions. Each time this person encouraged me to proceed, stating that the controversy would be beneficial since it was good occasionally to shake up people's established views on important issues.
I thought he original sent the paper to four reviewers. Did only one recommended publication?
I would suggest that publishing a controversial paper in an otherwise staid journal, without mentioning that the reviewers disagreed with the conclusion, is "acting unilaterally".