The AIA's taint

At lunch on Wednesday, I asserted that the AIA's involvement with whichever national magazine it sponsors inevitably results in its vulgarization. I was assured that the AIA has no real influence on its affiliated magazine, but I don't think it's as direct as that. It's more of a taint than an influence, something to live down rather than live up to. (I don't think this phenomenon is limited to the AIA, but is the norm for institutions, which, despite the presumed high hopes of their founders, fall rapidly to a level of relative mediocrity. Yet they live on, subscribed to even by those who dismiss them, since they issue badges of belonging and honor.)