Gossip, a four-part docuseries, traces the culture-shaping influence of the
New York Post, Cindy Adams, and Rupert Murdoch’s transformation of
American media
![‘The trashy stuff connects to the bigger picture’: the gossip-ification of America](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c3dd74a9c141061497db6948b634b8e4b443d5d0/0_0_3600_2160/master/3600.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=5c877a514aef23edbe6dde1d73dac67c)
The docuseries Gossip opens with a needle drop on the media timeline: “In the early 90s, gossip became very hot.”
Gossip, of course, predates the early 90s by the entirety of human history, industrial celebrity gossip by decades; stars of Hollywood’s so-called golden era were promoted, hemmed and hawed by the likes of Hedda Hopper, Louella Parsons and Walter Winchell. Showtime’s Gossip, a four-part series directed by Jenny Carchman, is concerned with a particular tentpole of American gossip: the brash, throaty New York tabloids at the intersection of wealth, politics and
Hollywood, when all-caps, exclamation pointed headlines about Tonya Harding, Lorena Bobbitt, the Menendez brothers, Bill Clinton’s relationship with a
White House intern, and Princess Diana’s every move shaped the national conversation.