It makes some sense. If you come to the conclusion that your constituency for a particularly important decision is a huge and diverse array of people (i.e. the readers), and then further conclude that opposition to your decision is coming from a very narrow and homogenous slice of that array (i.e. contributors)... Ignoring the opposition in favor of the "larger audience" could then be quite reasonable.
Nathan
Why aren't more of us, that very narrow and homogenous slice of that array, thinking that way, as publishers?
Fred