The ASTV-Manager newspaper, considered a mouthpiece for the anti-Thaksin Shinawatra People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), has gone into full-scale war mode this week urging the government to block Thaksin's phone-ins.

Last week, Thaksin accused Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda of being behind the September 2006 coup. Yesterday, the paper published the entire PAD statement accusing the ousted former premier of "aiming to eventually corrode the institution of monarchy".

On Monday, the paper published an article by a PAD member, writing under the pseudonym kathatyai, urging the Abhisit Vejjajiva government "to control" the media which is widening political rifts.

"Isn't it time for the government to put them in order and not allow them to exist in order to sow dissension? Or will they wait until something happens before rectifying it..." the writer asked. "It's as if someone staged a coup [in 2006] only to have people [who benefited from it] to play around like children selling goods. It affects members of the public who have lost time over nothing for more than two years now and have to start again at square one."

The irony that kathatyai wants the government control and censure pro-Thaksin media, such as satellite TV channel Dstation and community radio stations that air Thaksin's addresses, but the writer has failed to realise that ASTV and other anti-Thaksin dailies are also responsible for sowing seeds of discontent.

A member of the pro-Thaksin Democratic Alliance against Dictatorship (DAAD) told this writer recently that she "doesn't expect anything" from mainstream media, because they're all overwhelmingly biased against Thaksin and the red-shirt movement.

But how influential is the media in politics?

Some say it is significant and that media campaigns against Thaksin were key to his downfall nearly three years ago. Others say the media is not that powerful, though it's good that it takes clear sides so readers and viewers can know what to expect.

So did the media indeed destabilise the Thaksin administration so the coup-makers were confident enough to stage a putsch, or did it simply make the 2006 coup palatable through tacit acceptance of the coup makers as being "the lesser of two evils"?

One may gauge the influence of the heavily politicised media by observing how strongly readers and viewers react against those on the opposite side.

Last week, this writer witnessed red-shirt protesters abusing a TV Thai (formerly Thai PBS) reporter at Government House. This abuse, which lasted for about 10 minutes, was filled with hatred as they accused the female reporter and her crew of lying and told them to "go and die".

On the other hand, the influence of the media can also be measured by how strongly consumers identify with them. Consumers of ASTV, for example, are not just viewers but members of a larger imagined community.

Poonsri Ea-charoensri, a fruit vendor from Narathiwat, was quoted by the ASTV-Manager daily yesterday, as saying that she couldn't wear red during Chinese New Year because of the colour's political connotations.

"I used to like the colour ... Now I don't buy any red clothes and what I have has been put away," said Poonsri, who now wears pink and is a big fan of ASTV.

Many of the anti-Thaksin crowd don't just watch ASTV, they live by it. The same can be said of the pro-Thaksin radio stations, which are almost always turned on by taxi drivers.

Not to be left out, pro-Thaksin Dstation channel has been promoting itself at Government House. Installation costs Bt3,900 and the receiver box comes only in one colour - red.