With apologies to the OP, and in response to the mention of shifting opinion with regard to quotation remarks, I too have seen several articles about this in various media outlets. A link to one example:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/13/975833/-Lapsing-into-a-comma:-A-punctuation-paradigm-is-shifting
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/13/975833/-Lapsing-into-a-comma:-A-punctuation-paradigm-is-shifting