IF YOU opened a newspaper or newsmagazine, listened to a radio or watched a television for any amount of time this summer, brace yourself. I am about to say two words that will make you cringe: Chandra Levy.
The media spectacle that has ensued from the Chandra Levy disappearance is a disgrace, and there are many points that need to be cleared up.
After scouring the web, newspapers and newsmagazines for several hours re-cently, all I found was Chandra. Chandra, Chandra, Chandra. She was omnipresent. On the front pages of every newspaper, in the lead spot on every news Web site, there was something about the case. Condit's letter to his constitutents. Condit's umpteenth FBI interview.
The case also makes for the biggest laugh on the late night talk shows, and around water coolers everywhere. There are jokes about Chandra's hair. Jokes about Condit's hair. Jokes about Condit's pants and his inability to keep them fastened. And, the new old standby: buckets and buckets of Washington intern jokes, fast becoming staples of Leno and Letterman's nightly monologues.
However tired you are of hearing about Round Two of The Washington Intern Scandal, resist taking out your bitterness on the girl who is at the center of it. Resist talking about "that stupid girl" who got involved with her boss. Have you been making Monica comparisons? Don't. The situations are different.
In many ways, it may seem like Chandra is Monica "The Sequel." The summer of 2001, like the spring of 1998, has seen the image of yet another young, dark-haired Washington intern plastered everywhere.
In mid-July, at the height of the media frenzy, Time Magazine reported on just how much airtime had been devoted to the story by all of the major news networks.
One week, NBC Nightly News had a full 37 minutes on the Chandra Levy story. In a two-month period, the New York Post had seven front page stories on the case.
The only exception was CBS's Evening News. Dan Rather, CBS's anchor, refused to cover the story on the basis that it was a "tasteless" scandal, and, because there was no evidence that a crime had taken place. The Levy/Condit matter was a nonstory.
CBS held out until late July, but the other networks picked up their slack. One frightening - and perhaps inevitable - day, the lead story on MSNBC was that there was no new news on the Chandra Levy case.
Being deluged with all-Chandra-Levy-all-the-time media coverage may make people resent the girl at the center of it, especially since we just finished living through Monicagate and its aftershocks. Monica Lewinsky was made the butt of many cruel jokes in her time in the spotlight.
We did not want to go through all of this again. Another starry-eyed, awestruck girl gets herself involved with her politican boss and the whole country pays for it: our airwaves are clogged, our confidence in our public figures is diminished even further. It can be tempting to make jokes at the girl's expense, for all the crap it puts the country through.
In the midst of the Chandra Levy cyclone, we have to remember something. This girl is not Monica Lewinsky. This is not at all the same situation.
Chandra Levy is still missing.
There is one place you can see Chandra Levy's face where you never saw Monica Lewinsky's: on the "MISSING" posters posted around Washington, D.C. this summer. Seeing them was a reminder of the differences between Monica and Chandra. Chandra isn't asking for prosecutorial immunity. She is not making plugs for Weight Watchers. She is not starting her own line of handbags.
By the time University students are going to their first classes of the new semester, Chandra Levy will have been missing for four months. As time passes, it is less and less likely that she will be found. With every passing day, her parents' pain increases as hope dwindles that she is still alive.
Monica Lewinsky's family had to deal with their daughter being embroiled in the biggest sex scandal in recent memory - an experience which must have been more than a little humiliating. Chandra Levy's parents, however, have to deal with that and more. They have to deal with a parent's worst fear: that they may never see their child again.
Hundreds of people go missing in Washington without exhaustive efforts to find them. In Washington, 558 missing person cases reported this year remain open ("DC Keeps Little Data On Missing," The Washington Post, June 10). Let's hope that those missing persons, along with Chandra Levy, are located. Let's also remember that Chandra Levy is not just another Washington intern joke: She is a missing person, and her case should be treated accordingly, with seriousness and respect.
(Laura Sahramaa is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. She can be reached at lsahramaa@cavalierdaily.com.)
Read More
PATEL: Personal development courses support students beyond the gradebook
By Heer Patel | 19 hours agoThe University must rethink its approach to education beyond traditional major-specific requirements and mandate personal development courses.
EDITORIAL: Commercialization threatens U.Va.’s educational mission
By Editorial Board | YesterdayAfter all, measuring the University’s worth in terms of accrued capital, operational efficiency and numerical rankings molds this space into just another cookie-cutter institution.
YOUNIS: Why every U.Va. student should say yes to English
By Ayat Younis | 6 days agoEvery student at the University, regardless of their primary field of study, can professionally and academically benefit from engaging with the English department.
