Ick alert? TV dramatizations of Clinton-Lewinsky scandal airing or in works
More than 20 years after it ended, the scandalous affair of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky still fascinates, still strangely exerts a hold on popular culture. How otherwise to explain … Continue reading
O.J. Simpson wins parole, but it’s no 1995 moment
O.J. Simpson’s parole hearing today in Nevada may have been widely watched and much-anticipated. But it was no “flashbulb moment,” not an occasion so rare and powerful that it will … Continue reading
No cause for cheer if O.J. Simpson wins parole
If he is paroled, it will be no cause for cheer. Expectations are that O.J. Simpson — former football star, erstwhile celebrity, and now aging felon — will win parole … Continue reading
Messaging, sequencing a puzzle as CNN launches ’90s series
It’s certainly commendable that the 1990s — a decade Americans too often treat casually or dismissively — is receiving extended attention from CNN, in a seven-part documentary series that premieres … Continue reading
Sitting in jail, O.J. Simpson becomes a cultural reference point
While he sits in prison in Nevada, O.J. Simpson, convicted armed robber and central figure in the 1995 “Trial of the Century,” has become an odd if recurring point of … Continue reading
The smears Lewinsky ignores
Monica Lewinsky unloaded today on Fox News and its former chairman, the late Roger Ailes, for turning her life into a “nightmare” as Fox covered the sex-and-lies scandal stemming from … Continue reading
PBS doc on OKC bombing signals anew the significance of 1995
PBS on Tuesday is to air an “American Experience” documentary about the deadliest episode of home-grown terrorism in U.S. history, the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995. The program revisits a … Continue reading
The ’90s: With us still
In ways metaphoric and real, the 1990s linger, offering reference points and context for contemporary events and personalities. A telling example came at Times Square on New Year’s Eve, when … Continue reading
When the U.S. stood still: Awaiting the O.J. verdicts in 1995
The watershed year 1995 produced two flashbulb events in America — moments so powerful and memorable that for years afterward people remembered where they were, and what they were doing, … Continue reading
Clinton-Lewinsky affair hovers over presidential campaign 21 years later
I was asked at the launch last year of my latest book, 1995: The Year the Future Began, whether the Clinton-Lewinsky sex-and-lies scandal would resurface during the 2016 presidential campaign. … Continue reading
The 1995 Blog 