I find it odd how willing people are to believe a theory that requires hundreds of people across dozens of organizations to be complicit in the process when every single one of those people has an excellent reason to expose the bribe attempt. It would literally be in their best interest to expose the attempt, both in terms of direct finance (that story is going to get a lot of hits) and the credibility it would lend to their personal brand down the line - something that means more readers and, of course, more clicks.
The theory as it currently stands basically relies on some combination of the following propositions being true:
1) People who work in the games media are morally bankrupt - even the fresh faced youngsters who just got their foot in the door and would otherwise have to kill to get the kind of exposure revealing a bribe attempt would bring them
2) People who are not morally bankrupt are too stupid to notice a bribe attempt
3) People who work in the games media are short sighted enough to take a small cash payment now rather than guarntee an increase in revenue over time
4) Respawn or EA paid such a tremendous sum of money that all of the above were rendered moot - everyone has a price after all. Good thing they spent millions bribing people for good press when the game is being marketed to a crowd that, by and large, don't read the press.
