Is the Chandra Levy Disappearance Being Sensationalized?
HOWARD KURTZ, CO-HOST: From rumor to speculation to political earthquake, Jim Jeffords put the Senate in Democratic hands. Are the media getting the real story or just playing the blame game? And the case of the missing intern. Is the press hyping the Chandra Levy story because of her alleged mystery lover? And are journalists going too far by tying her to a California congressman? Welcome to RELIABLE SOURCES where we turn the critical ends on the media. I'm Howard Kurtz along with Bernard Kalb. Well, more on covering the dramatic Senate power shift in a moment but we begin with a missing Washington intern who's parents have been all over television. Why is the story grabbing such big headlines, and are journalists abandoning any restraint in covering it's more tabloid aspects?</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Any new clues here?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are no new clues. And I think it is appropriate to say they have reached an impasse.</s>KURTZ (voice-over): Was the sad tale of Chandra Levy irresistible for scandal-hungry news organizations? Even if she's just one of thousands of "20 Something's" missing each year. And were they too quick to play up her friendship with Congressman Gary Condit, the California democrat who represents her hometown?</s>KATIE COURIC, "THE TODAY SHOW": What have you been able to determine about the nature of they're relationship? That seems to be another added mystery in this case.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, at this time there's nothing that's shown us that it was anything other than a friendship.</s>KURTZ: Did Levy's parent orchestrate the coverage by using a foundation that specializes in drumming up public attention for missing persons?</s>SUSAN LEVY, MOTHER: Everybody, continue your prayers because this isn't just my daughter it's like anybody else's. It's like your daughter, too.</s>KURTZ: Well, joining us now from New York, Steve Freedman, executive producer of "The Early Show" on CBS, and "Newsweek" correspondent Karen Breslower. Steve, "The Early Show" is not going to do a story on any old missing intern. What attracted you here was the mystery boyfriend described in an e-mail by Chandra Levy and a possible relationship with a congressman, right?</s>STEVE FREEDMAN, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, "THE MORNING SHOW": Well, I think that's part of it. It's a very fascinating story. It's every parent's nightmare -- send your college senior off to their first intern job and they don't come home. I think it's a very compelling story. But sure all of it has intrigue -- intern, Washington, Congress, where's the young lady? Absolutely.</s>KURTZ: Karen Breslower, any feeling in reporting this story that you were kind of descending into tabloid land?</s>KAREN BRESLOWER, "NEWSWEEK" CORRESPONDENT: It was definitely an uncomfortable story to report particularly when I drove down to Modesto where it's an entirely different guessing game. And the mystery relationship was not really the focus, rather it was the pretty obvious anguish of this family and a number of friends of this family who could not figure out what on earth happened to this young woman. And what difference did it make whatever unexplained aspects of her social life that the media seemed so fascinated by? It was a very uncomfortable trend.</s>BERNARD KALB, CO-HOST: Steve, is all of this taking place -- your enthusiasm for this story because of the Monica Lewinsky background? For example...</s>FREEDMAN: Well...</s>KALB: Hang on just a minute, Steve.</s>FREEDMAN: Yeah.</s>KALB: I read the reports. I see that one correspondent said that everybody's talking about it in Washington. There's a buzz in Washington. It's a non-stop coverage and so forth. Those -- that phrase "young intern", it's got you by your editorial throat and that's why you're giving it coverage. Am I right?</s>FREEDMAN: I think you're partially right. There aren't many old interns, Bernie. The fact is, again, this has a lot of mysterious little stuff that makes it a great story for television and for the magazines and for the newspapers. You know...</s>KALB: Mystery based on what? You are concocting a variety of fictions -- not you personally -- but the media.</s>FREEDMAN: Well...</s>KALB: There's great rampage of suggestibility, romantic liaisons and so forth based on what? You have a scrap of what?</s>FREEDMAN: Bernie, all of the congressman has to do is come out and talk to somebody and tell us what's going on. How come he hasn't talked to anybody?</s>KURTZ: That is an interesting point we pick up with Karen Breslower. Congressman Gary Condit has issued a statement denying any romantic relationship calling Chandra Levy a good friend. But he has not spoken publicly. The newspaper "Roll Call" reported that he -- some of his friends are coming out on his behalf but I wonder if the press, given this unusual set of circumstances, has been unfair in suggesting, implying, hinting that there is some sort of romantic relationship there?</s>BRESLOWER: The D.C. police who started the investigation -- it later went to the FBI -- made a number of suggestions that there was something unusual in the young lady's social life and that they interviewed the congressman. They've done searches of his neighborhood and of his immediate surroundings, too. So it was very clear that a friendship with a member of Congress was not just a random element of this young lady's life. I think that's what really inflamed the media interest. So it wasn't just random.</s>KALB: I'll throw one right over the plate for you.</s>FREEDMAN: OK, I'm ready.</s>KALB: Easiest question in the world. To what degree is the Monica Syndrome at work in this story?</s>FREEDMAN: I think it's partially to work.</s>KALB: Partially? How about rampagingly?</s>FREEDMAN: No, I was say partially.</s>KALB: Why so stingy?</s>FREEDMAN: Even if there was no Monica and this same story came down the pike I think we'd be onto it by now.</s>KALB: Have you -- may I, please? Have you done any check up? I see a figure of 98,431 missing persons a year in the United States. Few of them rate a minute on one morning news show. Have you checked out any other possibilities for young intern stories among the 98,000?</s>FREEDMAN: Well...</s>KALB: Or have you surrenders to the buzz machine that this story has generated?</s>FREEDMAN: Unfortunately there are a lot of murders in this country, yet, Robert Blake's wife seems to be getting a majority of the coverage. We pick and chose on stories all the time and our job basically is to report things that we are interested in and we think the public should be interested in. I do not believe -- I do not believe that anybody who, when they hear this story is not interested in it.</s>KURTZ: Karen Breslower, anything about this story and the sort of mystery, tantalizing aspects about it make you uncomfortable?</s>BRESLOWER: Well, there are two gigantic mysteries. One is what happened to this young lady? Where did she go? And tow is, does what is described as a friendship with a member of the United States Congress in any way figure in the woman's fate? We know the answer to neither of those questions. We don't know if the two known facts -- one, the young lady is missing and nobody knows where she is. Two, she has what is described as a friendship with a member of Congress. Nobody knows if there is a relationship whatsoever between these two facts.</s>KURTZ: Well, one thing that is clear, Steve Freedman, is that was a firm that specializes in getting publicity for missing persons cases hired by the lady's parents that I think helped put it on your radar screen. How much of a factor is that when people of all sorts have tragedies in trying to grab some media attention in a place like "The Early Show"?</s>FREEDMAN: Well, I think it is a factor. I think these kind of firms -- these kind of people know who to call, when to call them and what to present as a story. We get calls from people in all walks of life. People -- movie stars -- have publicists. Corporations have press offices. senators, congressmen, White House have press offices and it does get you on the radar screen a little earlier. Even without this firm, however, this is the kind of story that would have eventually surfaced -- maybe not as quickly but it would have surfaced.</s>KURTZ: Steve...</s>BRESLOWER: One other thing...</s>FREEDMAN: Yes?</s>KURTZ: Go ahead, Karen.</s>BRESLOWER: Well, I just wanted to say, also consider where this happened -- the fact that the young lady comes from a town where the foundation of missing person's foundation was created two years ago after a very widely publicized kidnap and murder case at Yosemite National Park I think played a role. Because this family immediately knew whom to contact. So did the congressman, by the way. He put the family in touch with this foundation in his district. So there were a convergence of a number of I think pretty unique factors that got this case an enormous amount of attention that it might not have gotten in some other city.</s>KURTZ: That indeed is what it has received and we will have to leave it there. Karen Breslower, Steve Freedman, thanks very much for joining us. Well, up next how reporters are covering a political earthquake this week set off by Senator James Jeffords.