Media

"The current war has been called the best-covered war in history, and certainly the visuals and reports from 'embedded' reporters have been spectacular, bringing war into our living rooms like never before," Katie Delahaye Paine writes in her PR firm's publication The Measurement Standard. "[T]he embedded reporter tactic is sheer genius. ... The sagacity of the tactic is that it is based on the basic tenet of public relations: It's all about relationships.

"Hundreds of chanting demonstrators lined
Manhattan's Fifth Avenue on Thursday, and dozens lay down
in the street in a 'die-in' to protest the war. ... Anti-war groups also called for other civil disobedience in
the city to protest media and corporate 'profiteering from
the war.' ... Some protest signs were directed at the media. One
protester held a sign showing a picture of parrots and the

Paul Krugman notes that "by and large, recent pro-war rallies haven't drawn nearly as many people as
antiwar rallies, but they have certainly been vehement. ... Who has been organizing those pro-war rallies? The answer, it turns out, is
that they are being promoted by key players in the radio industry - with
close links to the Bush administration. ... Until now, complaints about Clear Channel have focused on its business
practices. Critics say it uses its power to squeeze recording companies and

"The start of the war caused business at movie theaters to
drop by 25 percent on Wednesday as people stayed home to
watch the war, and snack-food sales and restaurant
deliveries thrived. The opening salvos of the war had taken
the place of prime-time entertainment, and television
stations did their best to serve up gaudily produced
coverage: the war in Iraq as the ultimate in reality
television, as the apotheosis of every favorite Hollywood
genre, from the combat thriller to the coming-of-age tale