I've been working in PR since 1999. One of the most common things I run into with startups is that, when I talk about sockpuppets or how stuff actually gets placed on TechCrunch (usually via an influential investor), there's some skepticism.

That's understandable, but also a little frustrating because the media is now so broken, that the way we WANT to think it works is not at all how it works.

So I included here a link to something I wrote this weekend concerning how easily The New York Times was manipulated by a group of religious extremists in upstate New York, right as an investigation began into a housing development they were building was revealed to have been approved via fradulent means:

http://bjmendelson.com/2013/11/22/thanks-to-kiryas-joel-new-york-times-hanukkah-is-cancelled/

The lesson, at least I hope it is, should be clear: The media can be manipulated. The takeaway should be to change your perception of how the media works if you haven't done so already. It IS who you know and how well you can manipulate those people. Unfortunately.