@MichaelRosenYes To "throw a dead cat on the table" (also known as the dead cat strategy) is a political and rhetorical tactic of deliberately making a shocking, outrageous, or scandalous statement to divert public attention away from a failing argument, a scandal, or an embarrassing policy.
@Dplanet A prime example of : Stochastic Terrorism ; which is the use of mass media and hostile rhetoric to provoke ideologically motivated violence. Because the aggressor relies on the statistical probability that someone in a large audience will eventually carry out an attack.