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Loren Steffy, a business columnist for the Houston Chronicle, criticized Friday a decision by the Philadelphia Inquirer to allow a local bank to sponsor a column in the business section.

Steffy began his column by stating, “Pssst. Hey, buddy, wanna buy some words?

“Not just any words — these words. I’m thinking of selling them at a reasonable price, say, $20 for nouns, $25 for verbs, $10 for adjectives and adverbs. Proper nouns, of course, will command a premium.”

And he ended with this: “In the news business, our words have value born of independence. We write for the readers. We inform, we entertain, we cajole, and yes, we anger. But we do it for you.

“Writing for anything or anyone else — for advertisers, for profit, for our own career advancement — cheapens the value of our words.

“It taints our mission as surely as if it were boxed in green ink.”

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