A token harsh question or two is allowed, but in all major confessional interviews, the interviewee is positioned as a victim of society's insensitivity and intolerance. Garrison Keillor once caught the tone of these performances with a manic fantasy of Bryant Gumbel interviewing Adolf Hitler. Gumbel says to Hitler. I mean, personally, you and Eva. I feel sorry for them.
Life is a garden, a summer day, a fragile butterfly. . . .
Lewinsky is obviously no Hitler, not even an accused perpetrator on the level of Tonya Harding, Lorena Bobbitt, or Michael Jackson. But the interview is very likely to unfold along conventional lines. It's not up to them to tell me what I must feel, or how I should make love, Barbara. What we had together was so very personal and beautiful. They have turned your life upside down.