From what I'm to gather by reading Part One, the author runs his own affiliate link SEO sites and is mad that big-name brands are doing it better by leveraging business deals and brand recognition.
If he wasn't going to investigate this, who would? CNN? USA Today?
It's disclosed on a banner across the top of literally every cnn-uncensored page that's being 'outed' here. He could have saved the entire research/dig by simply screenshotting the top of any of the pages. That wouldn't have the same energy or 'Ahah!' though.