"Wag the Dog" is a 1997 political satire film that centers around a political spin doctor, Conrad Brean, who is brought in to handle a presidential sex scandal. Brean teams up with Hollywood producer Stanley Motss, to create a fake war in order to distract the public from the scandal. The film is a comedic commentary on the manipulation of the media and the power of image in politics.
In the film, the President of the United States is having an affair with a "Firefly girl" (a young girl involved in the Presidential-themed youth organization) and is facing a sex scandal as a result. The problem with the President's affair is that it threatens to ruin his re-election campaign and tarnish his image. To distract the public and take the focus off of the scandal, Brean and Motss come up with the idea of creating a fake war. They use a variety of tactics such as manipulating the media, creating fake footage and even staging a fake funeral to make the war seem more real.
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Stanley Motss feels like he deserves to have credit for his part and attempts to tell but he is taken in by the CIA and not to be seen again. It’s later announced on tv during the film that Motss had a heart attack and died while sunbathing leaving the audience to either assume he’s being held captive or he’s been killed. The death of Stanley Motss serves as a reminder of the potential consequences of the dangerous game of manipulation and image control that many players in politics play and also how politicians will go the extra mile to hide their scandalous