Airbnb is another matter. Asking the blogger to remove the post sounds like such a bone-headed move that I have trouble believing it is true.
Airbnb has lost all credibility in my book.
The title was changed from "AirBnB: Crimes committed against a host" to "Violated: A traveler's lost faith, a difficult lesson learned" As you noted, this matches the title of the story on the blog.
From http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
"You can make up a new title if you want, but if you put gratuitous editorial spin on it, the editors may rewrite it."
The submitted title accurately portrayed the story as linked to without significant editorializing.
There was a clear conflict of interest in YC modifying the title to be one more favourable to one of their portfolio companies.
This is exactly the kind of situation chinese walls are designed for, where I've worked for investment banks in the past there's no way they'd allow their investment arm to edit the output of an analyst report to be favourable to a company they invest in. That's the kind of thing that makes you subject to a regulatory investigation.
However I imagine they don't do so due to the obviously loss in good will such a position would cause.
What emphasis if any does the YC program place on ethics?