Pause, if you will, and offer up a small happy bunny dance in honour of American Business Media - the association of business publishing houses, whose members include CMP, Crain Communications, The Economist Group, Elsevier, Hearst Business, IDG, McGraw-Hill, Penton, PRIMEDIA, Scholastic, Ziff Davis, and many other print and online powerhouses.

Kudos is due in this case for their courage in taking a position on the blurry line between advertising and editorial - calling on member companies to keep a clear separation between the newsroom and the schmoozeroom.

In their release, Gordon T. Hughes II, president and CEO says: "The cornerstone of editorial integrity and credibility is the ability of media to make content decisions based on mission and the needs of the reader, and to make these decisions without undo influence from outside interests such as advertisers."

He points members to the association's Editorial Code of Ethics, released in March of this year, which is a worthwhile read in itself.

The real test now, of course, will be to see how many of the member media companies follow through on this call to action. Specifically, how many publishers will have the balls to decline lucrative advertising from the likes of BP or Morgan Stanley, in cases where the contracts include slippery ad pull clauses?

We'll see.

Thanks to Tom Murphy and Kerry McClenahan for the link.