The Post today takes the front page of the Style section to weigh in on yesterday's brewing controversy over the company's sponsorship of a Defense Department 9/11 commemoration event next month.

"Our interest in the event is consistent with our past support of causes related to the victims of September 11 and the veterans of wars past and present," a Post spokesperson told the paper. "The event was never presented to The Post as a rally to support the war. We would be disappointed if it took that approach."

An organizer of the counterprotest, though, argued: ""No common person will see this as not taking sides in this war."

So far none of the media outlets sponsoring the Pentagon's rally have agreed to sponsor the counterprotest also.

> In a sign that the controversy has gone "mainstream," it's even popped up in the navel-gazing letters at the Poynter media website. One letter writer chimes in: "Funny, I thought it was the role of the press to challenge not collude with the government when it attempts to disseminate propaganda."