Ream, Berra, Dyrdek, Hendrix, and the rest of the ISF had the upper hand because most skaters actively avoid organization and (probably) thought by ignoring these kooks they'd go away. Sadly, by ignoring these kooks, they were able to put together this garbage.
Also, I wrote a couple things on Ream/Hendrix back in the day, I've been told by various editors that they won't publish anything that is "negative" about these two. One editor (for a small mag) explicitly stated that Hendrix hooks him up with trips to Woodward, so he was never going to publish anything negative about him, even if it was true.
Now, we wait and see what happens to skateboarding now that Ream, Hendrix, Berra, Dyrdek, and the rest all have a ton of money, influence on government sport spending around the world, and a huge global megaphone.