faely, I appreciate you being honest with your thoughts, but please keep in mind that the consumer does not care who is responsible for what in the process of receiving his or her end product; he or she is giving money and expects a quality product in return. Trying to excuse one of the members of this process is not going to do much more than aggravate the majority of the consumers.
If McDonalds receives low-quality beef from whatever company is in charge of providing them the beef, then it will be McDonalds who will apologize for it, not the obscure company that the majority of consumers may have never been aware of. McDonalds will not tell the angry consumers, who complained to McDonalds, "Oh, hey, sorry, guys, but we're not in charge of the beef, we just cook it."
Now, is McDonalds completely to blame? Nope, not completely. But, being a respectable company, they will apologize to the consumers and take responsibility for the failure of the end product that was provided by them.
I'm not trying to start an argument or anything, but rather give a suggestion in order to at least minimize hostility: the publisher must take responsibility as well, whether it be with a poll, an apology, a plausible solution, etc.