HBO recalls Oklahoma City bombing
The best films about the past proceed with the assumption that history has a history of its own. “An American Bombing: The Road to April 19” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA) offers more than an emotional recollection of the shocking events in Oklahoma City in 1995. It traces the roots of the bomber’s radicalism and sees the story of Timothy McVeigh as a signpost in the recent history of antigovernment rhetoric and radicalism in both American politics and media.
Participants in this film include several witnesses of the blast for whom April 19 brings bittersweet memories. Former President Bill Clinton participates. He was president when the bombing occurred and had been recently sworn in when the siege of Waco occurred on April 19, 1993. While many have cited Waco as the source of McVeigh’s embittered turn against the government, “The Road to April 19” traces the convergence of white-power groups and anti-government militias back to the late 1970s, when groups of farmers declared themselves under attack by the federal government.
The late 1970s was also the time when pro-gun groups, most notably the NRA, changed their image from gun-safety huntingculture advocates and began to deploy far harsher anti-government rhetoric, extolling the virtues of amassing arsenals of automatic weapons to combat Washington’s “tyranny.”
The 1995 bombing occurred before the advent of Fox News, the internet, social media and the intense tribalization of partisan media ecosystems.
In 2016, I used this column to question the wisdom of Fox News’ Sean Hannity and others when they seemed to be egging on the siege of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon by followers of anti-government activist Ammon Bundy. Not only was Hannity playing with matches and seeming to incite another Waco or Oklahoma City, he appeared to be doing it for the sheer fun of it.
Oklahoma City is what happens when seditious rhetoric is used for ratings purposes. Or political advantage. Or fund-raising. So is January 6.
As one of the participants in “The Road to April 19” observes, the 1995 events were warnings that have been forgotten. “We need to wake up,” he says. And speak up, too.
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