Image and italics issues in Rich Text editor since 2.5 update
There is a better way! Pixel &amp; Tonic has addressed this with the Redactor I plugin, available here: https://craftcms.com/news/running-redactor-i-in-craft-2-5

This completely restores the previous content rendering and functionality (including image sizing/alignment and Live Preview).

I understand where Imperavi is coming from, championing for cleaner data, but it just wasn't part of this project's workflow. When I start my next project fresh, I'll be using Redactor II.