While "TV news executives would like us to forget this whole bizarre episode," FAIR founder and former Fox News talking head Jeff Cohen looks back (Huffington Post, 2/22/09) at the shameful media circus that was Chandra Levy's disappearance. "As I witnessed the farce from inside cable news," Cohen writes, "I could see it was all about ratings and had nothing to do with journalism":

From May to September 11, cable news channels covered no story more than Condit/Levy. Not the economic slowdown, not California's energy crisis, not Ashcroft's or Rumsfeld's misguided priorities, and certainly not something or someone named Al-Qaeda. Al who?

For months until the morning the Twin Towers were hit, it was Condit--not bin Laden--who was the most despised man in America. Especially on cable news, where Condit was linked week after week to murder, with no end to speculation about how he'd caused the tragedy. Perhaps Levy died during rough sex with the congressman. Or her death was connected to Condit's ex-con brother. Or Condit's buddies in a motorcycle gang. Or because Levy was pregnant with Condit's baby. "TV's barking heads are drooling," wrote media critic Todd Gitlin.

Cohen sees "this week--with these same outlets reporting a 'break' in the 8-year-old murder case"--as "a good time for TV news executives to look back and give the public a big, fat apology," for "the story seemed propelled far more by salacious interest in Condit's sex life than concern for a missing woman."

See this column from another longtime FAIR associate Media Beat: "Media Mania: The Condit Scandal Goes Over the Top" (7/12/01) by Norman Solomon

News that an arrest may be in the offing in the Chandra Levy murder case--no, it’s not Gary Condit, but a man currently incarcerated for a similar crime--inspires many unpleasant strolls down media's memory lane. But the most unpleasant might be Jonah Goldberg's ode to pack journalism and rushing to judgment (Jewish World Review, 7/11/01; Townhall, 7/16/01 ), where the conservative columnist all but declared Democratic Congressman Gary Condit guilty of murder. Wrote Goldberg:

Technically, it's bad form for journalists to "rush to judgment." We're supposed to carefully weigh and measure every confirmed fact as it comes in. Speculation, gossip and prurient chatter shouldn't play a role in our thoughtful deliberations on the important topics of the day.... Let's give all that rest for a minute.

Having dispatched with concerns over professional ethics, Goldberg graduated to several paragraphs of wild speculation, among them:

I think California Representative Gary Condit had something to do with the disappearance and therefore possibly even the murder of 24-year-old intern Chandra Levy. (Corpses from suicides tend to turn up.) I don't know if Condit said to a shady friend, "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome intern?" Or if he forcefully declared, "Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia, er, I mean Chandra Levy" to his Hell's Angels buddies. But one thing is clear: Condit has not behaved like an innocent man.

Then, after stating that the story would "probably turn out to be a murder investigation--with Condit as a prime suspect," Goldberg reached his crescendo, endorsing pack journalism’s righteous supposition that Condit was the killer:

Normally, I am loath to endorse pack journalism and feeding frenzies, but this time the media is 100 percent right. First of all, this is news. The only reason Condit isn't a suspect in a murder investigation is that this isn't an official murder investigation yet. If or when it does become one, Condit will undoubtedly be a--if not the--suspect. But more importantly, if it weren't for the media pressure, it's unlikely that Condit would have cooperated as much as he has.

Besides, there's foul play afoot, and methinks Condit is wearing some dirty shoes.

As it turned out, of course, there's no reason to think Condit had any involvement in Levy's murder. Meanwhile, Goldberg's sullied journalistic principles (here are some more recent examples) did not hinder the Los Angeles Times columnist and TV pundit from steadily rising in the corporate media. Indeed, they may even have helped.