Amanda Bailie
MIT 2406
Prof. Selma Purac
13, November 2012
Film Response – Wag The Dog
“Why does the dog wag it’s tail? Because the dog is smarter than the tail. If the
tail were smarter, it would wag the dog.” (Levinson, Wag The Dog). The films’ thematic
foreshadowing of mass manipulation is present within the opening caption alone. The
film Wag The Dog revolves around a spin-doctor, that is, a political aide who is
responsible for controlling the general publics opinion and interpretation of an event. The
spin-doctor in question is placed in Washington, and attempts to fabricate a story for the
president to distract the public from a sex scandal, just mere days away from an election.
The fabricated story (a pretend war in Albania) is produced, discreetly, by a handful of
film-making professionals in Hollywood. The story soon snowballs, requiring more ministories to backup the original fabricated war.
Throughout the film, the concept of media manipulation is discussed and
displayed. Media manipulation can be loosely defined as the ability to coerce the general
public into adopting specific ideologies, or beliefs, that are presented forth within
mainstream media such as films, television, art, etc. The practice of politics, and
politicians alike, are historically known to use these tactics of media manipulation within
campaigns and elections. Consequently, Washington uses their connections in Hollywood
to defend their morality to the public by manipulating the media. Thus, relating to the
caption displayed at the beginning of the film, implying the tail is indeed smarter then the
dog. In this instance, the tail being media and politics, and the dog being the general
public.
The term media is broad in that it can encompass television news, reality or
scripted shows, movies, radio, pictures, etc. In the film Wag The Dog, the medium of
television is essential to the plot of the story. The spin-doctor and his Hollywood team
disseminate their false, manufactured images of a war to the public through the use of the
news. The influence of the news, and in extension television, over the general public is
displayed when the line, “It’s real, I saw it on TV” is said on more than one occasion.
Thus implying that the images and words that flash across a television screen constitute
the truth, just because they are on the screen. In extension, the reproduction of one news
story across various news outlets reinforces the message throughout the general public,
further legitimizing the fabricated story. Television is the primary tool in completing the
task of pulling the blindfold over the general public, as seeing an image intensifies the
truth rather than just hearing the story, whether that be through word-of-mouth or from a
politicians mouth. This illustrates that the public puts their trust in the media firsthand
before trusting other potential credible sources (such as the Firefly Girl who claimed the
sexual abuse from the president). The public is blindly patriotic to the television, yet the
television is corrupted by Hollywood and the government.
As the film progresses, it is evident that changes within the plot of the film
happens when a television is present. For example, the CIA infiltrates and becomes
knowledgable of the spin-team’s doctored plans and has the opposing presidential
candidate declare to the public that the ‘supposed war’ in Albania is now over. The team
discovers this sabotage whilst sitting watching the news on television, an irony in itself.
The television provides an easy way to change the plot of the film dramatically, while
making the situation appear realistic. This is essentially what happens to the general
public in real life; the public learns about global events through the news and
automatically believes the stories that they are told and reacts accordingly. Therefore, as
it does in this film, the television allows for the easy but potentially dramatic plot changes
of life.
The totality of this argument is essentially displaying the immense power that
Hollywood, and in extension the media, has over the general opinion of the public. If
needed or wanted, Hollywood can produce images, television shows, or films to sway the
public in one direction or another. This power can be seen in the recent presidential
elections, as famous celebrities and important figures in Hollywood showed their support
for President Barack Obama, attempting to influence their ‘fans’ rather than ‘voters’ to
make a favourable decision. This may be an monumental problem for future societies, as
the generation growing up in the world today is deeply integrated with technologies and
in extension, media influences from birth. The world will no longer be focused on what is
right or what is important, but what the media is telling the public to think and believe.