Oops! The New York Times has done precious little reporting on the Condit case; perhaps to their credit, perhaps not — you be the judge. It’s always a little sad, though, when one of the bigs ignores the story for weeks and then manages to get a big fact wrong once they actually take a whack at it.
James Risen’s article in today’s Times reports on Gary Condit’s refusal to meet with private investigators working for the Levy family. (Given the acrimony between Condit and the Levys it’s actually not hard to blame him, but that’s another story.) At the tail end of the piece Risen reports that the Levy investigators are combing over the Condit timeline.
Here’s the last graf (emphasis added):
In the Condit timeline, first made public in June by ABC News, Mr. Condit said that at 12:30 p.m. on May 1, he met with Vice President Dick Cheney at the White House. He returned to his office that afternoon for meetings and phone conversations with his constituents, had a doctor’s appointment at 5 p.m., voted on the House floor at 6:30 p.m., and then met with a reporter at a restaurant in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood of Washington, near his home. He and his wife later had dinner at home.
Met with a reporter on May 1st? Really? Has Risen caught any other reporting on the Condit-Levy story in say the last month or so?
Apparently Risen didn’t catch my story on this meeting from two weeks ago or Jake Tapper’s piece last week. Because we both reported what everyone else now knows: that that meeting took place on the second, not, as the Condit team first alleged, on the first — a pretty important difference when you consider that that’s the day Levy disappeared.
But don’t take our word for it. Check out when the Modesto Bee reported on it. Or when ABC News finally reported on it. Or maybe just ask the Condit legal team — they DISAVOWED it about a month ago.
I mean, c’mon guys, this ain’t the Wen-ho Lee story. You’ve actually gotta report this stuff out.
