Consumers of ‘news’ need to know when the ‘tail’ is “wagging the dog”.

And am pleased to report this City of Lake Worth
is ‘wagging its tail’ in a brisk manner.

When it comes to the press and news media oftentimes ‘the news’ is what gets the most ‘kicks’ and social media clicks. And serious public policy news oftentimes doesn’t get the most ‘kicks’ and ‘clicks’. Why is this important?

Because there were two major developments in this
City of Lake Worth last week, both of
which are “Worth Noting”.

First, we learned last week Ordinance 2018-17 will be heard at Second Reading for “The MID” on Tuesday, Nov. 13th at 6:00 in City Hall and also last week was a joint press release from the City of Lake Worth and Community Redevelopment Agency.

The press release and Ordinance 2018-17 cited above are truly significant for this City of Lake Worth.

So as you read or watch press and news media accounts about this or that up to and including what will happen at City Hall on Nov. 13th ask yourself this question:

Are the press and news media wagging the dog or trying to wag the tail instead.

What does “Wag the dog” mean?


To ‘wag the dog’ means to purposely divert attention from what would otherwise be of greater importance, to something else of lesser significance. By doing so, the lesser-significant event is catapulted into the limelight, drowning proper attention to what was originally the more important issue.

The expression comes from the saying that ‘a dog is smarter than its tail’, but if the tail were smarter, then the tail would ’wag the dog’. The expression ‘wag the dog’ was elaborately used as theme of the movie. ‘Wag the Dog’, a 1997 film starring Robert de Niro and Dustin Hoffman, produced and directed by Barry Levinson.