It’s no secret that people who depend on good public perception—corporate honchos, politicians, celebrities—work the media to get in the news. Recently, however, some of these folks have not only been staging basic PR campaigns, they’ve also started staking out unexpected positions on key issues to gain credibility with the public.

By playing with our expectations and abusing some time-honored rules of journalism along the way, these “masters of the universe” have been advancing their agendas with striking efficiency. Journalists use a rule they call “man bites dog” to help them decide if a story is newsworthy: A dog biting a man is fairly common, but a man biting a dog is, well, unusual—and in a media-saturated world, it’s the unusual that makes the 6 o’clock news.

“Man bites dog” explains why most successful Hollywood-actors turned-politicians are Republicans. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan, they get elected to office by playing against our expectations. Liberal actors are a dime a dozen, but a conservative actor makes for a great story—and results in a ton of free press.

Indeed, what casting directors call “playing against type” has become de rigueur in the world of politics. In the modern era, this probably started with Richard Nixon, who, as a hard-line anti-Communist, had the credibility to negotiate with China. Later, Bill Clinton’s infamous spin-meister Dick Morris used “triangulation” to steal Republicans’ thunder on welfare reform and TV violence. Today, under George W. Bush, the spin is nearly Orwellian: A bill to decimate the forests becomes the Healthy Forests Initiative; a bill that threatens to pull money out of public schools is called No Child Left Behind.

Unfortunately, the manipulation doesn’t end there. Today’s media-savvy public figures are also exploiting the basic principles of objectivity in American journalism. (Notably, objective reporting is mostly an American phenomenon; European newspapers still tend to be written from a feistier, more openly partisan perspective.) When done well, objectivity leads to a fair, unbiased story. But misused by press-hungry people and lazy journalists, it degenerates into a game of “he said, she said,” presenting all sides, regardless of their merit.

As these kinds of spin tactics continue to multiply, the media will have to adapt. If heterodoxy is the new orthodoxy—if subverting expectations is now standard procedure—then we need to be more skeptical when people play against type. Journalists can no longer afford to parrot both sides of an argument. They’ll need to dig deeper.

It all amounts to an escalation of the rhetorical arms race, one for which both producers and consumers of media need to prepare. If you read about a man biting a dog, you’ve got to wonder about that man and why he wants you to know about his dog-biting prowess. What’s his agenda? Why all the dog-biting? Inquiring minds want to know!

Of course, there are limits to our cynicism. I don’t doubt that conservative actors are sincere in their beliefs. They’re not faking it just it to get attention; but if they get attention because of it, the net result is the same. The point is no one should get a free pass simply because they don’t conform to a known stereotype—the “man bites dog” rule is overdue for an update. After all, Gov. Schwarzenegger subverts every expectation in the book—Republican immigrant, conservative actor, muscleman politician. But it’s not clear that he’s been an effective governor, and his approval rating recently dipped below 40 percent.

In an era flooded with constant information, from iPods to blogs to cable TV, those who seek to spread a message or influence a debate will always look for new ways to manipulate the media. And while the media itself can do a better job of fighting back, it will always be left to the rest of us—the media consumers, the informed citizens—to know a fake when we see it and not be fooled by a dog bite that’s only skin deep.