Government conspiracy theories are ten a penny these days. They speak to our inherent mistrust of those in power, as if by their very nature politicians are self-serving, deceiving liars. While that may or may not be true, an often overlooked aspect of their tactics is the collusion between the political classes and the mainstream corporate media. The media is an important aspect of political life in that it is used to shape public perception of political issues - from drumming up support for us to go to war or protecting the establishment from uncomfortable revelations, it's the medium through which most people understand the world around them. Wag the Dog, Barry Levinson's wonderfully scathing satire starring Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman as a political spin doctor and Hollywood producer called in to create a fake war to distract the public from a presidential sex scandal, is one of those rare Hollywood movies which pokes behind the curtain of propaganda and media manipulation. Wag the Dog's effectiveness at the time came thanks to President Bill Clinton, who faced his own sex scandal with Monika Lewinsky while launching military strikes against Sudan. As with Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, satire always works best when it has a flavour of truth behind it.
