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press box: Media criticism.

Truth and Condit Frenzies

William Saletan
Posted Tuesday, July 31, 2001, at 5:52 PM ET

For three months, the media have demanded that Rep. Gary Condit be held accountable for withholding information from the public in the Chandra Levy case. Most recently, they've pummeled Condit's spokeswoman for allegedly spreading lies about Levy's sex life. Press Box has no interest in defending Condit's duplicitous, selfish, and cowardly behavior, but the press corps piranhas should be held to their own standards. Three weeks ago, they disseminated allegations that Condit had carried on an affair with an 18-year-old woman. That story now turns out to be false, but many of its purveyors are dragging their heels about admitting it.

The Washington Post broke the story in a front-page July 12 article headlined "Minister Says Daughter, at 18, Had an Affair With Condit." The article's lead paragraph reported, "FBI agents looking into the disappearance of Chandra Levy have approached and interviewed a Pentecostal minister who described an affair between his then-18-year-old daughter and Rep. Gary A. Condit, telling investigators that the congressman had warned her never to speak of the relationship." But on July 21, in a story headlined "Minister Recants Story About Condit," the Post reported that the minister "informed investigators this week that he had fabricated the story, a law enforcement source said today." On July 31, the Post added, "The FBI has concluded that a Pentecostal minister's account of an affair between his daughter and Rep. Gary A. Condit is untrue."

To its credit, the Post printed the July 21 article about the minister's retraction on its front page, at almost the same length as its original July 12 story. Other publications, pundits, and TV news programs haven't been as scrupulous. Here's a breakdown (based on searches using Dow Jones and Nexis) of who reported what about the minister's daughter, and what these members of the press have done--or not done--to correct the record since the story has been discredited.

Newspapers and Magazines

Atlanta Constitution, July 12
Headline: 2 witnesses describe alleged Condit affairs
Length: 1,002 words
Retraction: Aug. 1, bottom of article headlined "Duplicate key may be new lead in Levy case," 26 words

Detroit News, July 12
Headline: Preacher says daughter, Condit had an affair
Length: 246 words
Retraction: July 31, bottom of "National Briefs" (no headline), 108 words

Houston Chronicle, July 12
Headline: Minister describes 18-year-old's relationship with Condit
Length: 702 words
Retraction: None

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 12
Headline: Minister says daughter had affair with Condit
Length: 184 words
Retraction: Aug. 1, bottom of article headlined "Levy investigation scaled back," 68 words

New York Daily News, July 12
Headline: NEW CONDIT AFFAIR BARED AS DOGS SEEK LEVY'S BODY

Daily News, July 21
Headline: CONDIT EVIDENCE DUMPING PROBED
Key text: Meanwhile, the Levy family puzzled over reports that Modesto preacher Otis Thomas had backed off his statement that his daughter had a bad breakup with Condit. ... Privately, some investigators said they thought Thomas was recanting to protect his daughter, who has refused to speak to the FBI for more than two months, allegedly out of fear.

Daily News, July 24
Headline: CONDIT'S BLOWING IT BIG TIME, SAY PROS
Key text: Condit's reputation wasn't helped yesterday when Levy's parents said they believe a Pentecostal minister recanted his story that Condit had an affair with his daughter because he's afraid. Susan Levy said she still believes that Otis Thomas' daughter had an affair with Condit because Thomas had three emotional conversations with her about his daughter. "He's scared," Susan Levy said. "There's a lot of people out there who seem to be scared."
Retraction: None

New York Post, July 13
Headline: 'AFFAIR' TEEN HAD BABY--CONDIT'S LUST FOR SEX ENDED FLING: SOURCES
Key text: A minister's daughter gave birth to a son during the two years she allegedly had an affair with Rep. Gary Condit--whom she dumped him [sic] because of his sexual demands, The Post has learned.
Retraction: July 20, bottom of article headlined, "CONDIT DUMPED ITEM BEFORE SEARCH: COPS," 96 words

Orlando Sentinel, July 12
Page: A1
Headline: TEEN'S DAD ACCUSES CONDIT
Length: 763 words
Retraction: July 21, page A3, 294 words

Slate, July 13
Headline: What's the Latest With the Missing Intern? Part 9
Length: 264 words
Retraction: Aug. 3, bottom of article headlined "Explainer Mailbox: A Jail for Generals?," 98 words

U.S. News & World Report, July 23
Headline: Chasing Chandra
Key text: Add in the disclosure of two more alleged affairs--with a flight attendant and the teenage daughter of a West Coast minister--and, well, suddenly it's all Chandra, all the time. U.S. News has learned that in all, FBI agents in California are pursuing rumors about more than a dozen women with whom Condit may have had extramarital relations.
Length: 1,809 words
Retraction: None

Television News Broadcasts

ABC Good Morning America, July 12
Tease: More embarrassment for Congressman Gary Condit. ... Four law enforcement sources confirming that a minister has been questioned by the FBI. He says his daughter was one more person who had an affair with Congressman Gary Condit, this time when she was just 18.
Length: 299 words
Retraction: Aug. 1, end of interview with Levy's aunt (Tease: "Chandra Levy's aunt, the one who knew all her niece's secrets"), 170 words

CBS Morning News, July 12
Placement: Top story
Tease: Congressman Gary Condit facing new allegations of an affair with the daughter of a California minister.
Length: 321 words
Retraction: July 20, end of news roundup, 26 words

Columnists and Commentators

Lucianne Goldberg
Forum: Fox News Hannity & Colmes, July 20
Key text: I don't believe that [the minister's retraction]. ... I think this man has been terrified! His daughter has been terrified. He's been -- who is this third party that's calling up people and threatening them? They called up the airline stewardess. They've called up this minister. They--who is it? It isn't Gary Condit. So someone else is involved here.
Retraction: None

Ellis Henican
Forum: Newsday, July 15
Headline: Condit's Hiding Something
Key text: Oh, he's hiding something. Make no mistake about that. And it goes a whole lot deeper than the fact--duh!--that he and Chandra Levy were having this tawdry affair. Or that he was also boinking a small army of airline hostesses, minister's daughters and assorted other women of grossly impaired taste in men.
Retraction: None

Steve Lopez
Forum: Los Angeles Times, July 13
Headline: Condit Miserably Fails 10 Commandments Test
Key text: Any day now we'll be seeing bumper stickers: "Honk if your daughter had sex with Gary Condit." Condit's public relations firm, which may have to go on a hiring frenzy to keep up, called the story of the alleged liaison with the 18-year-old "discountable." I don't know what Condit's paying these duffers, but you begin with "baldfaced lies," and if they keep coming, you call your accusers a "guttersniping cabal of fringe lunatics." "Discountable" sounds like you're ready to plea bargain.
Retraction: None

Barbara Olson
Forum: CNN Larry King Live, July 30
Key text: We also have too many people frightened. I mean, you know, the minister was frightened, and I think he truly was, because, of course, he talked to Chandra's parents back before she was missing. There wasn't really a reason, and you don't think a Pentecostal minister is going to exactly come out about that kind of information about their daughter--it's rather embarrassing--unless it's something he felt he could help them.
Retraction: None

Bill Sammon
Forum: Fox News Special Report With Brit Hume, July 12
Key text: I find it hard to believe that a minister would make up a story about his daughter having an affair with a congressman. Now what really got me about the story is that she was 18 years old at the time. OK? That was--I don't know--six, seven, eight years ago, but, still, it would have put him in his late 40s. For a sitting member of Congress to be having an affair with an 18-year-old woman is outrageous. I agree--you know, we talked on this show last night about what's the next step and we talked about more women--we're going to start seeing more women--sure enough this morning's paper brings another batch of them. I think it's going to continue. The noose is tightening around this guy.
Retraction: None

Juan Williams
Forum: Fox News Sunday, July 22
Key text: The one glimmer of good news this week was when a minister out in Modesto said that, in fact, he had made up a story about his daughter having an affair with the congressman. ... So, all of a sudden, even the good news looks as if maybe this man is reacting out of fear, not only for himself but for his daughter. He said, you know, 'I have nothing to gain by telling this story. Why would I tell a lie?' All of a sudden now, he's running in the other direction. It seems like everything about Gary Condit this moment is just radioactive.
Retraction: None

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William Saletan is Slate's national correspondent and author of Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War.

Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum

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Reader Comments From The Fray:

Condit has been grossly irresponsible -- not just by having the affair with Levy, but by attempting to conceal it. This does not entitle the media to be irresponsible in turn through their reporting -- particularly since they only wind up damaging their own credibility just as Condit's behavior has damaged his

--Gigi

(To reply, click here.)

Isn't this a little strange??? Are we to believe that this "good" man has seriously maligned his own daughter to the entire world for some unknown reason?? I can't even understand why a father would tell the reporters that his daughter has an "affair at age 18!! Okay, so she made a mistake (maybe/maybe not).

So, let's look at this thing---let's say she "did not" have this affair:

1. Why would a father make that up? What could have possibly even put it in his mind?
2. If he did make it up, why on earth would he besmirch his own daughter?

3. Why isn't daughter jumping up & down & denying the entire story?

4. Why is daughter hiding?

--Doubting Ex-Virgin

(To reply, click here.)

The FBI essentially said the minister was lying and there had been no such crime. THEN the minister retracted. Why would he lie? To be in the spotlight of those he loves, such as Lucianne, Barbara Olson, Ruch and Savage. I am much to busy to pay attention to spin shows, but I assume the good Rev.'s been on these shows and has done interviews for the Free Republic, Washington Times, Fox News and Wall Street Journal.

--Marc Villa

(To reply, click here.)

Press box just doesn't go far enough. Besides the minister's daughter, the claims that Chandra Levy was calling Condit continuously during the last few days (from the Levy family) isn't true either, according to Newsweek. Claims that Chandra was pregnant turn out to be untrue. Chandra was depressed over job and end of affair turns out to be untrue. Mrs. Condit had angry phone conversation with Chandra turns out to be untrue. Finally, does anyone wonder why the minister is described as a minister (one day a week for a small Pentacostal church); why not a gardener since that apparently is what he does most of the time. Perhaps, describing him as a gardener wouldn't have had the same value (who cares about a headline about a "Gardener's" daughter). I thought I had seen the nadir of our press in this country; now I know that I hadn't seen anything until this tawdry Condit story. If the press had treated the story fairly and correctly, and the police had not been required to spend huge amounts of time correcting press misstatements and misinformation, the police feel they would have been further along on this case. So who's to blame now?

--Concerned in Philadelphia

(To reply, click here.)

I don't support or not support Mr. Condit, for I know little of him or his political leadership other than what I've heard over the past weeks, but I do know that it is horrific that we lean so heavily to the "burn him at the stake" mentality in this Country that some cannot even recognize when a mistake has been made. Perhaps he did have something to do with her disappearance, but perhaps he did not. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

--Lisa

(To reply, click here.)

There is ample additional information out there that casts doubt on the "revised" take on that story, and would make any retraction moot if not inappropriate. For one thing, reportedly the minister's daughter involved has gone into hiding out of fear. (She's not the first Condit love interest reportedly afraid to come forward.) For another, the minister's story was originally told to Susan Levy, Chandra's mother, in great detail well before Chandra disappeared.

Finally, Condit's own conduct (e.g., trying to get Anne Marie Smith to lie about their affair, his lack of truthfulness about his affair with Levy, and his callous disregard for Chandra's well-being -- or at least his preference for saving his own skin over hers -- since her disappearance), not to mention his reputation as a womanizer, all cast doubt on just about any and every denial he can come up with.

--Elorial

(To reply, click here.)

(8/1)

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