Only to divert public attention from a sex scandal involving the President, of all people. Ring a bell? Well, some people thought Bill Clinton might have "wagged the dog" in his time as President letting NATO bomb Kosovo. Wag the Dog the film might have helped spawn that theory. It has certainly helped popularize the phrase.

As demonstrated in the movie, the White House spin doctors are able to manipulate the media because they understand what makes the American public, er, lick. They feed the public something tasty to hold onto while they get on with their own business, whatever that is. Like, there's a guard dog on duty in front of a house. A burglar can not get in without risking suffering dog bites. But a well-trained burglar who brings a bone with him might be able to get in without a fuss from the dog, that is, if the dog is less than well trained. The burglar understands that dogs love to chew on bones and so he hands the dog a bone to play with while he goes about his business, scot-free.

Enough dogs and politics. Here are media examples for you to see more of this phrase in action.

1. 'Wag the Dog' Back In Spotlight

A president embroiled in a sex scandal in the Oval Office tries to save his presidency by distracting the nation with a made-for-TV war far from American soil in an obscure country.

It's not the latest news out of Washington, but the plot of the movie "Wag the Dog." In the 1997 movie, a shadowy spin doctor played by Robert De Niro recruits a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) to invent a war against Albania.

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