Metacritic gets a lot of flak for being the major review aggregator, and they certainly took a lot of stupid choices in the past, but I very much doubt they're bribing the publishers to be referenced in contracts (and be sure, as the situation is, if the Metacritic was shut down they'd use another aggregator) nor it's their faults that the gaming journalism is as it is.
Well, they pretty much support this with their crappy nonsensical system. What worth is it to know the average rating of a game if the used reviews are bullshizzle anyway.