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CNN Sunday Morning

Reporter's Notebook: The Chandra Levy Case

Aired July 08, 2001 - 09:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we asked for your e-mail questions on the Chandra Levy case and we got them -- plenty of comments, too. Time now for some answers and our CNN National Correspondent Bob Franken. He joins us again from Washington for our Reporter's Notebook. All right, Bob, here we go, we've got all kinds of e-mails here.

This one come from T. Weaver in Hagerstown, Minnesota or Maryland, "The only reason so much hype is surrounding this case is because it's once again an opportunity for the media to exploit the private life of another politician."

I know this is something you've had to respond to quite a bit, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a lot of concern about that, that this is just really, to put it bluntly, some sort of ratings gambit. And on the other side you have the people who say that Gary Condit is a public figure and therefore given this particular set of circumstances and, quite frankly, some of the similarities that have been spotted between this case and the highly celebrated case of President Clinton a couple of years ago, that all of that adds up to this being a news story.

Others say that this is purely exploitation. What has happened in any case is that argument is over. There is tremendous interest everywhere -- not just in the United States but around the world. And I can tell you that almost anywhere that I go these days the only thing that I'm asked about is the Chandra Levy case.

PHILLIPS: This one comes from Jessica Crabtree, Bob. "The vital issue, which is being overlooked, is the life of a young woman who may or may not be in grave danger."

And you have repeated this over and over again also talking about what the police have said and the other options of what could be the situation here.

FRANKEN: And, of course, the fact that the police are very frustrated that with all of the attention that's been paid to this that they don't seem to be very close to having any very real answers to what happened to Chandra Levy.

I think it is fair to say because of Congressman Condit's involvement everybody believes that the investigations itself, the search for Chandra Levy has almost been obscured in what has been publicly reported. The police insist that is not the case. As a matter of fact, they say that some of the people they've discussed the case with -- more than 100 -- who have really been more of a focus to them than Congressman Condit.

PHILLIPS: This comes from Bill. He's got a question, "Has anyone established Congressman Condit's whereabouts during the timeframe of Miss Levy's disappearance?"

FRANKEN: As a matter of fact they have done that with quote a bit of accuracy they believe. As it turns out Mrs. Condit -- Carolyn Condit -- was in town at that very time. There was a calendar that was put out -- a timeline -- which established some of them. The police have spent an awful lot of time -- they sent three to four hours with Mrs. Condit last week talking to her about when she could tell -- when she was with Congressman Condit during her sort of rare visit to Washington. They have also gone to other people and said, "OK, we don't have this from Mrs. Condit but he was at a meeting he says. Was he at that meeting?" So, yes, there has been almost a minute by minute effort by the police to establish Congressman Condit's whereabouts and his activities.

PHILLIPS: Here's an e-mail from Lou Claudio out of Florida, "Appreciating the significant difference between the two, why didn't the media ask Representative Condit if he was having a sexual relationship with Ms. Levy rather asking if he had been having a romantic affair with her?"

FRANKEN: Well, we often times come up with ways of saying things -- that's, of course, what we were saying. And I don't think that anybody mistook it. We, of course, have certain limitations about how we can describe things on television being a network that is watched by the entire family but I think that everybody knew what we meant by "a romantic relationship."

PHILLIPS: All right, Bob, here comes another e-mail. This one is just coming in, that's why I hesitated there for a moment -- this one comes from Diana C. in Puerto Rico, "Is there no linkage to her job as intern in the Department of Corrections? When exactly and where was she last seen however casually?"

FRANKEN: Just by being last seen -- you mean when is the last time that police know that somebody in fact had a conversation with her, saw her? We're operating on the assumption that that was April 30th -- that the last time that we know of is that she went into the Washington sports club where she is a member -- a gym, a place where people work out -- and ended her membership because she was going back to California. That to the best of our knowledge is the last time that she was spotted.

A lot of the police in the interviews have been with people who were in the health club that day. Police now say that they believe the next day she was in her apartment on May 1st because they believe she sent an e-mail to her mother. PHILLIPS: This one comes from Lynn -- this e-mail, "Chandra Levy's parents should be grateful that she was involved with a congressman otherwise she would be lost among thousands of other missing persons cases and she would not have received the publicity required to find her."

FRANKEN: Well, I don't know if I would use the word "grateful" but I certainly think that that's a perceptive observation. It has become quite clear that the parents have been involved in coordinating a public relations effort to raise that issue. They have hired public relations people here in Washington, they have coordinated the public comments of her aunt, Linda Zansky -- they want that out there.

There is an organization called the Sund/Carrington Foundation in Modesto that has been coordinating it's own public relations campaign and certainly it has been helped by all the attention that has been paid to the relationship between Congressman Condit and Chandra Levy.

PHILLIPS: All right, Bob Franken, thank you so much.

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