With echoes of the past, ‘Murphy Brown’ reboot tackles Trump-era culture wars

Watching old clips of “Murphy Brown” can often feel equal part prescient, equal part dispiriting, as if past and present are seamlessly connected despite a gap of more than 20 years.

There’s the one episode, spinning off the Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill Senate hearings, where Murphy is summoned to Capitol Hill about a leaked confidential Senate report. “May I respectfully remind you of the importance of the press in a democratic society?” Murphy answers the senator grilling her in a Southern drawl. “Without the press, Watergate, the Savings and Loan debacle, Iran-Contra may never have come to light.”

“So?” he responds deadpan.

There’s the episode where the