The Sacramento Bee has published 23 stories about Chandra Levy’s disappearance in the past seven weeks. All mentioned Levy’s name along with that of Rep. Gary Condit (D-Ceres).
If you haven’t been following the stories in The Bee — or on Fox television, CNN, the Washington Post or the New York Times — she is the Modesto woman who disappeared mysteriously April 30 as she was planning to return home from Washington, D.C.
“What a journalistic dilemma,” one reader wrote this past week. “As of yet, there is reportedly no evidence of criminal activity in the disappearance of Ms. Levy. On the other hand, we are given a nearly daily dose of reportage of a possible involvement of Rep. Condit.” Note that the “involvement” the reader refers to is a rumored romance, not suspicion of any crime.
Another reader was angered when a columnist suggested Condit’s reluctance to talk with the press was partly to blame for the attention the story received nationally. The headline said “Condit’s conduct fuels doubts, could imperil his political career.” Clifford Meyer labeled that column “slander” and referred to the overall coverage as “a media circus.” A third reader said the coverage generally reflected bad journalism.
Each reader has a valid point; the story presents a dilemma; media coverage has resembled a circus, and some bad journalism has been done.
Reader Mike Sarkisian, who acknowledged the journalistic dilemma, described The Bee’s recent performance like this: “In general, I think we are now beyond sensationalizing this story. Although it seems that Mr. Condit’s actions have helped to raise the specter of him having some involvement, it seems to me that the coverage has gone over the top.”
Executive Editor Rick Rodriguez acknowledged the quandary of dealing with such a complex story. Rodriguez does not feel The Bee has overplayed the story or hyped it to sensational levels.
“Gary Condit has been a big player in Sacramento,” Rodriguez said. He recalled that Condit was a leader in the Gang of Five that battled former speaker Willie Brown, and remains a close political ally to the Davis administration.
None of The Bee stories have appeared on Page 1, Rodriguez said, and several stories offered by wire services have not been run. (I checked and he is correct on both points.) Rodriguez recognized that one of the reasons this story is being followed closely nationally is “a spill-over from the Clinton factor,” and the linking of the names of a young female intern with a married politician.
A Washington television talk show participant recently referred to the Levy story coverage as symbolic of the “Monica syndrome.” CNN had contacted The Sacramento Bee to ask for an interview with a journalist about the Condit rumors. Rodriguez declined, as did the editors at the Modesto Bee.
A test for all media
Comment: The coverage of the search for Chandra Levy presented a tough test for the media, and several news operations flunked.
In general, television coverage has been somewhere between sloppy and awful. I quit watching after seeing one morning show anchor ignore Levy’s parents’ concern for their daughter’s life and grill them about her rumored love life.
Several newspapers ignored journalistic standards for dealing with stories involving rumors and unidentified sources. Some newspapers’ coverage should be embarrassing to journalists everywhere. Examples: Tabloids reported rumors based on an unidentified television station’s unnamed sources; one paper deceptively cropped photographs, and another used misleading headlines that implied facts not substantiated in the stories.
The normally cautious New York Times sent a reporter to Modesto, the center of Condit’s home district, for a story for the top of the National Report page this past week. The Times story concluded “Congressman’s Silence Tests District’s Loyalty,” after talking to seven of the district’s several hundred thousand voters (plus one Condit aide).
Another newspaper reported the district remains loyal regardless of rumors, based on similar anecdotal reporting.
Apparent news vs. real news
The apparent news — the disappearance of a young California woman in a Washington, D.C., neighborhood where young women had disappeared before — had little to do with most of the stories. Thousands of people are reported missing nationally every year, and their names never make a newscast or the newspaper.
Most of the real news stories that appeared in the Washington Post, on CNN, the New York Post and elsewhere noted the possibility of a romantic link between the missing woman and the California congressman, whether or not that had anything to do with her disappearance.
The Bee has certainly been dragged into covering that side issue. A legitimate civic interest exists in the real Chandra Levy story, to establish whether a congressman is honest or not.
But so far, no one has established the truth of anything.
Some of the odd national news coverage has been defended based on the congressman’s reluctance to talk directly with the press. That’s a legitimate point for an editorial page or a columnist to raise, as one did in The Bee, but a strange conclusion for a news story. A very few papers, including The Bee, noted that Condit has used aides to speak for him for years on a variety of news stories.
The Bee’s performance on the continuing story — so far — has been better than most news organizations’, though not perfect. It is very difficult to report on a story fueled by rumors without repeating rumors and the slippery sources of those rumors.
The play of the stories in The Bee has been generally restrained, and The Bee has avoided most of the weaker stories based on other news organizations’ secret sources.
But how many stories does this deserve? Looking back across two months it is hard to explain the need for each of the 23 stories that have appeared in The Bee.
The final judgment from readers on the performance of The Bee, and the rest of the media, won’t be recorded until Chandra Levy is found and the truth — not rumor — is revealed.
If the truth remains a mystery, the reputation of all media will be dirtied a bit more by the excesses of a few. Even newspapers that did a decent job will find some readers less willing to believe what they read.
Meanwhile, the distraught Levy family, caught in the middle of the national media at its worst, waits for the truth about their daughter’s life.
Read the small print
The sports department seems caught between a rock and a hard place (to borrow a clich that has appeared in The Bee seldom this year).
When the newspaper was redesigned to deal with a narrowed page width in April, editors tried a new typeface and size for the sports statistics pages.
The crucial decision made at the time was to reduce the size to 5 1/2 points instead of the traditional 6 points to avoid squeezing out some data. (A point is a unit of measure, and there are 72 points in one inch.) The new typeface and size don’t work very well, and readers have been complaining ever since the change was made. One reader last week threatened that if he can’t read the type better soon, he’ll go elsewhere for his news.
Bob Casey, the assistant managing editor/visuals who directed the redesign of the paper, and the sports editors knew they had a problem. “We’re not happy with sports agate either,” Casey said in response to a reader’s complaint. “There will be a change.” The sports copy desk chief, Barbara Zumwalt, who has been working on techniques to improve the readability, said changing the type will require such extensive computer programming work that “I don’t expect to see the new agate until August.” Casey agreed, guessing it should be ready for football season.
Meanwhile, I believe two lessons should be learned from The Bee’s experience with shrinking sports type: The average readers’ age and eyes are older than the average editors’ age and eyes; and no matter how much you want to, you cannot reduce the size of a newspaper page without leaving something out.
More post-redesign changes
A weekend reader from Chico enjoyed “Hints from Heloise” and “Miss Manners.” Both columns had appeared on weekends, and both seemed to disappear from her newspaper.
“What happened to them?” she asked.
Both moved as a result of the newspaper redesign in April. “Miss Manners” now shows up every Tuesday in the Scene section and “Heloise” in the Wednesday Scene.
The reader would like them back in the previous weekend spots, but that’s not likely to happen soon.
Another reader noticed that air pollution levels are forecast on the weather page, but the actual results are no longer reported.
“The reader is correct,” said Assistant Managing Editor Casey, who doubles as the weather guy. “I found out before the redesign that it was simply a restatement of the previous day’s forecast … actual figures are not available until between 11 p.m. and midnight, too late for our deadlines. So we just use the forecast now.”
