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Period: to
1990-2010
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Rush Limbaugh visits the White House
Limbaugh was one of the most popular radio personalities with millions of right-winged listeners. During Bush's 1992 presidential campaign, Bush wanted to gain support from Limbaugh and invited him over to the White House, practically doting on him (carrying his bags, giving him the Lincoln bedroom etc.). Post visit, Limbaugh covered Bush in a more positive way and broke his "no guests" rule to interview the President and Vice President on his show. (Kruse and Zelizer, 215). -
Nannygate
Clinton wanted to appoint the first female attorney general, but his first nominee Zoe Baird had to withdraw her name for it was revealed that she had an undocumented immigrant as a nanny and failed to pay her social security taxes. His second Nominee Kimba Wood had also employed an undocumented immigrant as a nanny. While not a large scandal in the grand scheme of things, the media had played up the drama of "Nannygate" and hurt the image of the Clinton administration. (Kruse and Zelizer, 207). -
Oklahoma City Bombing
Prior to the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the Oklahoma City Bombing was the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil and sent shockwaves through the country. The perpetrator of the event was Timothy McVeigh who was heavily involved in white supremacist groups and believed in anti-government and pro-second amendment ideologies. McVeigh was inspired by other events such as Waco and Ruby Ridge. He was only captured due to bad luck, he had a broken taillight. (Thomson, 4/18). -
Jon Stewart and The Daily Show
Liberal programing found a better footing and success on television, such as The Daily show with Jon Stewart. Despite the show being based in sarcasm and being used as an outlet for democrats to make sense of the time of George W. Bush, many Americans were getting their news and information from the show. The show had originally aired in 1996, but did not gain much popularity until Stewart joined, the show was important aspect of defining liberal media (Kruse and Zelizer, 274). -
Y2K
The Y2K Bug referred to the mass hysteria that plagued the U.S. in 1999, in which some believed that the Y2K bug would threaten to wipe out computers and disrupt all of modern society at the end of the 20th century. People had believed that computers would not change the date to 2000, and instead revert to 1900, throwing off all clocks and computer systems. There was also the fear that the "00" in 2000 would cause failures in computer systems.(Winerip, NYT). -
Vermont Legalizes civil unions for same-sex couples
The Vermont House of Representatives approved a bill creating same-sex marriages in almost everything but the name, while a great step for the gay community, it was met with backlash. One opponent said, "What we are trying to do is against the law of nature and against God's law". Again, gay couples in Vermont are only allowed a civil union, not marriage, one couple after it passed, they held a sign saying "Will you C.U me?" for they could not say "Marry me". (Goldberg, NYT) -
2000 Presidential Election
The 2000 Presidential election was between Vice President Al Gore, and George W. Bush. This was one of the closest elections with each vote having to be carefully checked. The Election was very intense and it took months to find out who won, there was the issue of "hanging chads", where some of the hole punched ballots were not fully punctured, meaning an invalid vote. The margin was 537, with Bush taking it to the Supreme Court to confirm who won. (Thomson, 4/24). -
The Facebook Launches
In 2004, Mark Zuckerburg a sophomore at Harvard built the platform in order to help Harvard students to connect with each other. The Facebook was the original name, changing to just Facebook as thousands began to join. The platform became ever growing and more popular and paved the way for social media platforms in the future. It allowed the internet to be more popular, and helped bring in a new wave of internet usage. (Richter, World Economic Forum) -
Hurricane Katrina
In August of 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans devastating the area, about 2,00 dead and many out of homes in addition to those who fled the area. There was lot of criticism on Bush and the federal government due to lack of action and support such as it taking five days fro fresh water to make it to those displaced. Bush was famously retuning from vacation and pictures were taken of him just flying over New Orleans, not stopping in to show support. (Thomson, 4/24). -
Barack Obama becomes President
Barack Obama was elected as the 44th president of the United States in 2008, the first Black man to ever be elected. Obama had previously served on the Illinois State Senate and in 1998 had been elected for his second term, then in 2004 he was elected as the junior Senator from Illinois. Obama even running for president in 2007 alone marked a historic win for the Black community in America, and winning the election only inspired many others. (Obamalibrary.gov)