TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2003 j ^feUr 3|ork ^tnteis Journalism Or Gossip? iM A Horse-Whisperer's Tale Trails Dominick Dunne . T >11 l-g^TOtti nww Norman Y. Lono torThe New YorkVlmes A taletoldbyDominick Dunne, above, aboutGaryCondit, topfarright,andthe disappearance ofChandra Levy, topleft, onthetalkshows ofLauraIngraham, bottomleft, and Larry King, right,prompted Mr. Condit to file a defamation suit host of his own program on Court TV. call from someone claiming to have in By FELICITY BARRINGER It is the Ingraham appearance, howev formation about Ms. Levy's disappear er, that has come back to bite him. His ance. At the time the body of Ms. Levy, Dominick Dunne began telling his tale comments on that December 2001 broad the former Federal Bureau of Prisons intern, had not yet been found; it was of Gary Condit, Chandra Levy, the horse cast are the central element in a slander suit against him by Mr. Condit, the for discovered last May in Rock Creek Park whisperer and the Middle Eastern pro mer Democratic congressman. And Mr. in Washington. The case remains un curer sometime in the fall of 200L It was Dunne's frequent repetition of versions of solved. tantalizingly baroque; Mr. Dunne, the this unsubstantiated tale — on television, The caller, Mr. Dunne said, identified Vanity Fair columnist, mesmerized a in Vanity Fair, at dinner parties —raises himself as the animal behavior expert group of New England newspaper editors the question of whether and when jour whose professional story had been re with it over lunch at Foxwoods Resort nalists can traffic publicly in rank rumor. created in the Nicholas Evans noveP'The Casino in Connecticut in November 2001. Reached at his country home in Con Horse Whisperer." The man, never He also spun the story for Laura Ingra necticut for comment on the lawsuit and named by Mr. Dunne, said that he ham, the lawyer, conservative commen on a recent Atlantic Monthly attack on worked in Dubai, where he met a man tator and syndicated radio host, over him for his role in pushing for the pros who procures call girls for wealthy Mid lunch. Ms. Ingraham promptly invited ecution of Michael Skakel, convicted last dle Easterners and Middle Eastern em Mr. Dunne to repeat it on her show, which year of the 1975 murder of Martha bassies in Washington. he did. Moxley, Mr. Dunne said, "How did you A recording of the radio show reveals As chronicler of the crimes of the rich, get my number?" He added: "I just am that Mr. Dunne then said: "Now some of Mr. Dunne has become a celebrity him not going to talk. This is a very bad time this I can't explain, and I don't want to self. At 77 he is a prolific author, pro in my life." Ms. Ingraham did not return get into any trouble saying. But accord ducing both keenly observed court re repeated calls to her radio show's office. ing to what the procurer told the horse porting and best-selling novels. His knack Understanding the fuss requires know whisperer who told me, is that Gary for getting face time with the famous and ing the horse-whisperer story in all its rococoglory, as told by Mr. Dunne to the Condit was often a guest at some of the his passionate advocacy for crime vic Middle Eastern embassies in Washington tims have made him a staple on shows radio audience. The story begins in the like CNN's "Larry King Live." He is the fall of 2001, when Mr. Dunne received a Continued on Page 5 [TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2003 ^IreiNetir jlofk^tmeis \ Horse-Whisperer's Tale Trails Dominick Dunne - 1. Lin Wood, the Atlanta lawyer who represents Mr. Condit, has an affinity for crime-scene celebrities that rivals Mr. Dunne's own. He also represents Richard Jewell, wrongly Continued From FirstArts Page suspected of the fatal 1996 Olympic Park bombing in Atianta, and the —where aUthese ladies were. family members of JonBenet Ram "And thathe had let it bekno^ sey, the young murder victim of that he was in a relationship with a Boulder, Colo. In the Dunnelawsuit, woman that was over. But she w^a he argues that Mr. Dunne knew the clinger. He couldn't get nd of her. story was "nothingmorethan unver And he had made promises to her ified and unsubstantiated rumor and that he couldn't keep. And app^ent- gossip." lysheknew things Leon Friedman, a constitutional mreatened to go public. And^ one lawprofessor at Hofstra University, point he said. 'This wom^ is dn^g said that two legal principles were me crazy,' orwords to that effect relevant in this case. One, seeming "And I wrote all this down at the to favor Mr. Condit,holds that "ifyou time, and what the horse whisperer pass on a rumor, even if it's three, said that the procurer said is, by four or five times removed, you can saving that, he created the environ- be held Uable," he said. The other, S that led to her disappearance. seeming to favor Mr. Dunne, holds S she shortly thereafter that "if youdisclose all the informa ished." Reminding his tion that you have," under a 1997 "I can't vouch for any ^ ' federalappealscourtrulingina New Dunne added that he was toW ^ta York defamation case, "itbecomes a semi-conscious Ms. Le^ had b^n matter of opinion, because you've hustledprocurer,Mr.Dunne^daboard a private P^^®*s^culated™ | allowed the reader to make up their. own mind about the validity of the that"she was dropped at ^a. charges." Mr. Condit filed hissuitin in February 2002 Mr. Dunne re federal court in the southern district neated an abbreviated version, wito- of New York. out the remarks at^^uted to Mr. Laura R. Handman, Mr. Dunne's Condit, on "Larry King Live. Thes^ lawyer and a First Amendment spe remarks are also cited in the lawsui^ cialist with the firm of Davis Wright in which Mr. Dunne is the sole de- Tremaine, said in a prepared state ment, "Notably, Mr. Condit is not Mr. Condifs suit seems a taking issue with anything Mr. longfhotForapubUc^to^a Dunnewrote in his columnfor Vani defamation judgment, he must ^o ty Fair, but only for comments on that the remarks a^out him wwe talk shows and at private dinner deliberately false or made with ex parties." In such contexts, she said, treme recklessness. "this kind of speculation is not ac- rUBSDAY, JAmJARY28, 2003 tionable." Mr. Wood, who said this Jane E. Kirtley, Silha proiessor oi was the first defamation suit filed by media ethics and law at the Universi the former Congressman but n^ay ty of Minnesota, was less accommo not be the last, expects the case tabe dating. "I'm flabbergasted," she "a close call" He added: "Does our said. "This is not journalism. This is legal system sanction a society that repeating data that came your way basically approves of rumor-mon- — preliminary data. How do Ve gering on national television and na knowhowthe guy who's talking l^re tional radio stations? Can you simply is who he purports to be?" ^ go on the air and make any accusa But do taUc shows pretend ..to tion you choose?" Journalists do not produce journalism? Some journal operate by written rules, but diss&n- ists see rumors as an inextricabte inating rumors is not-a generally part of the argument that fills talk accepted practice in mainstream • radio and television. Such shoj^s, media. i they argue, need more flexibiKty Graydon Carter;the editor of Vani thanprintjournalism andtheiraudi ty Fair, which publishes Mr. Dunne's ences bear some responsibility for voluminous trial coverage, high-dnd distinguishing fact fromspeculation. gossip and social commentary, is Chris Matthews, the host of a show sued a statement in response to a on MSNBC, said of the horse-wHis- query aboutthe Atlantic Monthly W- perertale, "That's a heU ofa lotof ticle and the defamation suit. In it he assumption piled on assumption." A praised Mr. Dunne as "aunique jour host, he said, must showskepticism nalist with unique talents and ex of thinly sourced information. But traordinary access to a wide raing€ of considering Mr. Dunne's ovesall sources," Mr. Carter said that Mr. work, "I would stillhaveNick on,'^he, Dunne "operates with a moral com said. "1 just like Dunne." t pass that is bom out of a persopal Michael Kinsley,the former editor tragedy," a reference to the 1982 of Slate and a former panelist'on murder of his daughter, the actress CNN's "Crossfire," also said he f}e- Dominique Dunne. 'Z lieved that "talk radio and tzilk tele Mr. Dunne, who moves fluidly vision are media where everything is among his various roles as journal a first draft." Without defending lS4r. ist, tipster to law-enforcement invlSs- Dunne, he said, "It would be too tigators, novelist and raconteur, has stuffyto say that they have to have made many friends. Few want to the same standards of evidence ^d criticize him. Jeffrey Toobin, Ihe accuracy as a newspaper." ; New Yorker writer who covered the Which is not the same as having-no 0. J. Simpson trial with him, said?"I standards. He said that there a wouldn't want to see every reporter line, and Mr. Dunne's rem^ks in America operate by Dominick's "were on the wrong side of the line." rules. But I wouldn't want an Ameri can journalism without Dominicki".