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Wag the Dog
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Robert De Niro as Conrad Brean in the film Wag the Dog, wearing a suit and red bow tie with arms crossed, standing indoors with shelves in the background.
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Wag the Dog

film by Levinson [1997]
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Robert De Niro as Conrad Brean in the film Wag the Dog, wearing a suit and red bow tie with arms crossed, standing indoors with shelves in the background.
Wag the Dog Robert De Niro in Wag the Dog (1997).

The film Wag the Dog (1997), directed by Barry Levinson, is a political satire that explores the concept of "the tail wagging the dog". This idiom describes a situation where a less important entity controls a more powerful one. In the movie, political operatives create a fabricated war to distract the public from a presidential scandal. The film's title and theme gained prominence around the time of a real-life presidential scandal, leading to the phrase being used to describe military actions intended to divert attention from domestic issues.123

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3 Britannica Sources
  1. Barry Levinson
  2. The History of 'Wag the Dog'
  3. the tail wagging the dog

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