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Comment by jsharpe | Hacker News Reader

That said, it's pretty disturbing if this part is true:

  Over the past year, I have attempted to get some clarity
  and assistance from Yelp. I have had no success except
  that its sales staff has repeatedly advised that if
  we would only advertise with them, they could "help us."

In order for a site like Yelp to be trustworthy, its editorial and advertising people need to be totally separate.

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Sure, disturbing if true. But restauranteurs keep saying that, and keep failing to prove it - critically, they fail to prove it under oath. [1]

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp,_Inc.#Criticism_of_reviews is a good place to start digging, check their cites.

Have any of the lawsuits made it through the courts?

All I can find is this the dismissal of Levitt v Yelp where the Court, while "sympathetic to the ethical underpinnings of Plaintiff's argument" rules that editorial "immunity still applies regardless of whether the publisher acts in good faith", noting that "traditional editorial functions often include subjective judgments informed by political and financial considerations" [1].

[1] http://www.scribd.com/doc/70421921/Levitt-v-Yelp-Dismissal

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