Indeed. The world is rife with situations where people go "I don't care if it makes sense, I just want money" and this was clearly one of them.

If news companies want to make money off of the content they've posted, it behooves them to find ways to do that themselves. Paywall it, put advertising on it, use it as a loss leader for other paid services. Putting it up on a billboard and then running around demanding cash from anyone that looks at it is just dumb. I fully support telling them no.