Omens and Propaganda

On page 197 Zainab Bahrani claims that "oracles were taken seriously," and that the king himself was subject to follow and obey them. I think there may be some truth to that, but I also feel that omens could be manipulated by the king and perhaps even others. It definately appears that omens were signifant. It is also probable that there were many who followed and obeyed these oracles. However it seems very unlikely that all rulers would have been easily swayed by the interpretation of these omens.
On page 200 we seem to have an example of a king trying to impose his will on this process, or at least of advisors to the king attempting to impose some influence. There seems to have been some confusion over the process of bringing a substitute king to the thrown. There is a concern over wether the substitute king should actually be enthroned and wether he should actually be dressed as the king. The question is brought before the scribes to decide, and it is decided that it is indeed required to actually place the substitute king on the throne. This example seems to point to a little less absolute control then what is being claimed by the author.