Growing concern over advertising market pressure threatening editorial integrity came to a head at The Detroit News last week. Controversy has sparked over its decision to change a review on the new Chrysler 200. Auto critic Scott Burgess resigned after his changed review appeared online, reported Jalopnik, who broke the story.

A local dealer took issue with Burgess' comparisons to "a dog" and "a loggerhead turtle," according to USA Today. Although it was too late to change the print version, the online version was reposted. After negative feedback from the repost, editors have put the original back up and issued an apology for their actions.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Burgess is known for his blunt and often comical reviews. Several of the deleted passages reflect his blunt comedy. While the changes don't turn the review into a positive one, they definitely water down the criticism. Passages taken out include:

"Regrettably, the 200 is still a dog."

"But no number of LEDs can hide a profile that looks like a loggerhead turtle. If this car came in tortoise shell, the EPA would have to put it on the endangered sedan list to prevent trappers and automotive enthusiasts from rightfully shooting it into extinction."

Editor and publisher Jonathan Wolman wrote on the newspaper's site, "While our intent was to improve the piece by making these passages less grating, our decision to make these changes after fielding an advertiser's complaint was a humbling mistake. As publisher and editor, I want to apologize to our readers and of course to Scott. Once the review was published we should have maintained the wording in all our formats and avoided any sense that we were acting at the influence of any interest aside from our readers' interest." The full apology is available here.

Burgess expressed his regret at allowing the changes to happen, but remained positive towards the paper he resigned from, saying to Jalopnik, "I think nearly every print publication -- including The Detroit News -- are trustworthy. The reason this became a big deal is because it is so rare, it never happened before and it certainly won't happen again at the paper. In 15 plus years I had never had anything close to this happen to me."

Regardless of the apology, critics remain skeptical of the paper. Auto Blog said, "This affair hasn't just 'raised questions' about the paper's integrity; rather, it's all but ensured that The Detroit News will be viewed skeptically by many people going forward."

Sources: Auto Blog, The Detroit News (1), (2), Jalopnik (1), (2), USA Today, The Wall Street Journal