Is Google trying to censor news it deems "inappropriate" for public consumption?

That's what the editors of several news websites are asking after recent tussles with Google AdSense, the online advertising behemoth that generates revenue for publishers by placing third-party "pay per click" or "pay per impression" ads on their sites. Publishers need only sit back and collect the checks, which can add up to thousands of dollars a month, depending on traffic.

AdSense brings in about $13 billion a year to Google's coffers, about 24 percent of its overall revenue. According to its fourth-quarter earnings report in January, Google earned $3.72 billion in the last months of FY2014 from ads appearing on its network partners' websites. In 2011, the company said it paid 68 percent of ad revenue back to the sites that participate in AdSense. All added up, that's a lot of cash.