A really interesting piece by the New Yorker and ProPublica on what did and didn’t happen with that event where Iraqis and Marines pulled down the statue of Saddam.
It wasn’t intentionally set up by the Pentagon, but they were decent at exploiting it, and the media behavior was shameless. The shots everyone saw were very tight; the square was mostly empty. A small number of Iraqis followed the cameras around and were passionate; most just watched with their arms crossed. 25%-50% of the crowd was military or journalists.
Overall, everyone comes out looking good except the media.