Any IP Gurus out there?

I'm curious about something. A while back, I could check my use on Sitemeter, and I had at least one hit from the Tribune most days. It always came from the Qwest.com domain, and then in parenthesis, it said (GF Tribune).

So, one day I called them on it in a 'blog piece, and said that I noticed them reading. After that, I kept getting the regular Qwest hits, but now they all show as originating in Helena. I think that it's strange that a) all readers from the Tribune would suddenly stop reading and b) no Great Falls Qwest domain would ever show up.

My question is this: Could the Tribune have gone to their IP guy, or ISP, and asked them to somehow mask their IP address so it doesn't show up as (GF Tribune), but only as a Qwest domain?

Anyone?