This image was lost some time after publication.

A report from The Register claims that five business owners have complained to them that Yelp salespeople offered to "push bad reviews to the bottom" in exchange for an ad buy on the site. The story, based partly on several unnamed sources, leaves me skeptical. None of the sources claimed Yelp actually did move negative reviews out of sight after they'd bought a sponsored link. That backs CEO Jeremy Stoppelman's claim that they were probably duped by a "rogue salesman." But the article makes it easy to understand why people would pay up: The business owners who talked to The Reg in exchange for anonymity come across as more afraid of retaliation from Yelp commenters than from Yelp lawyers.