It's as if someone at the Columbia Journalism Review decided to write an assessment of the environmental reporting of the New York Times, but, rather than arguing that there were mistakes in any of the news articles, simply pointed out derisively that the Times gets advertising from big polluters. In reality, the same way that political contributors tend to give money to politicians whose views they sympathize with, contributors to universities tend to give to institutions whose research agendas they support. The New York Times Company and its foundation support the Columbia Journalism School. Jews support Jewish studies. Blacks endow professorships of African-American studies.
Businessmen donate to business schools.
Gun control supporters donate to the campaign of Senator Schumer. This is the natural course of things, and it's hard to see a reasonable alternative, other than forcing donors to give their own money to causes that they do not support. Look next for the Times editorial page to suggest that Philip Morris be forced to support financially research and advertising that is contrary to its own corporate interests. The next thing to look for, then, is a Times-backed law that forbids companies from funding university research and that imposes limits on the donations by individuals to universities. After all, the Times supports such limits on donations to politicians.