Weekend in Review

Twelve parts? Mistakes in the investigation? Gary Condit?

Yeah, Washington Post put the region on time warp mode Sunday, introducing an investigative series on the unsolved murder of Chandra Levy, that most famous of Washington interns. In its own words, here’s how the Post justifies the spilling of so much ink:

The serial will show how the sensational nature of the media coverage quickly overwhelmed the investigation. It will expose the fleeting acts that later loomed large and will reveal undisclosed clues, meaningful and false: a DNA swab in a dark parking lot, Chandra’s last computer search, a conversation with a jailhouse informant who said he had the key to the case.

In the end, the serial will reveal how an enormous effort by the D.C. police, the FBI and prosecutors was undercut by a chain of mistakes, a misdirected focus and missed opportunities that allowed a killer to escape justice.

Trouble is, we pretty much knew that basic thematic outline. And this first chapter in the series is not much of a read for anyone who, well, has lived in this country for the past eight years or so: Remember that the Chandra case was not a local or regional story, but a national one–everyone who has cable is familiar with the narrative.

So the paper had damn well better have something more than just the revelation that the media attention overwhelmed the detectives. I’ll wait and see. But hold on–there’s one thing I am not going to play wait-and-see on, and it’s my up-to-hereness on interviews with Chandra Levy’s parents. I have nothing against them, and I feel terrible about what happened to them. However, over the past several years, I’ve heard plenty from them, plenty enough to need to hear no more. So you go ahead and listen to this interview clip that the Post posted; I’m not gonna.

The Washington Times has a pretty thorough presentation on the passing of beloved Tony Snow.

The New York Times throws tons of resources, with great results, at the meltdown of Fannie and Freddie.

Of course, yeah, I know, whatever: It’s been a week since Nadal beat Federer at Wimbledon. Which means that historians still haven’t quite had time to anoint this one as the best title match ever. But check out the highlights, and perhaps you’ll agree.

And what about this whole Brett Favre bullshit? This fave of broadcasters everywhere has jerked around his team time and again. Now he wants back on the gridiron. On Sunday, a rally of Packers fans pressured team owners to reinstate Favre as the starting QB. But the team knows better and is going with the “final” word on the matter that Favre delivered in March, when he said he was retiring. Good on the owners: They watched that game in January, against my New York Giants. Favre effectively ended that tilt by throwing an INT. How fitting.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 8:36 am and is filed under Media, New York Times, Washington Post, Washington Times. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.