Frank Newport: Public interest in the Levy case

Frank Newport is the editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll and vice president of the Gallup Organization in Princeton, New Jersey. He is in charge of the Gallup Poll assessment of American public opinion, which has been continuously measuring public moods and attitudes in this country since the 1930's.

CNN: Greetings Frank Newport and welcome all.

FRANK NEWPORT: Good to be with you!

CNN: How closely are Americans following the Chandra Levy story?

NEWPORT: Our data show Americans are still following the case fairly closely. We asked about it first July 11 and just asked about it again this past weekend. In both surveys about six out of 10 Americans said they were following it closely. There was very little change between the two surveys. It's important to put that figure in context. Over the years, the very top news stories have gotten 80 % or more of Americans to say they were following it closely. That includes such things as the death of Princess Di, or the beginning of the Persian Gulf War.

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But for all of the stories we have tested this year, the Levy case comes in fairly near the top. People are certainly following it more closely than such things as stem cell research, or a patients' bill of rights. Finally, I would say that there may actually be some under-reporting of interest in the Levy case. In other words, it's possible someone could tell an interviewer they're not following it closely, but still perk up when they see the latest report on CNN.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Is this comparable to the interest in other missing person stories? Was Jimmy Hoffa followed so closely?

NEWPORT: That's an interesting question. I don't think we asked this same question about the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, so I don't have a precise answer. The case has certainly brought up the fact that there are many missing person cases every day across the country. People ask why this one may be getting all the attention. But there are also many deaths and many murders across the country every day, and only a few get a high degree of media attention, because of the specific facts relating to that case. This case has unusual factors relating to it, which make it more interesting, our data would show, than other cases where a young woman has become a missing person.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Are they following it from news reports, or from tabloids and water cooler gossip?

NEWPORT: We didn't split out the exact ways in which people were following this case, so I don't know exactly what people's sources of information are. I suspect that people are not only interested in media coverage, but find themselves discussing it with friends and relatives.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: But are they following the search for Levy or are they following Condit?

NEWPORT: Both are elements of the story. As I alluded to earlier, it is the connection with Congressman Condit that probably gives this story the fascination that it has. But I should point out that when we ask people our initial question about how closely they are following this story, we only mention Chandra Levy in the question wording, and don't mention Gary Condit.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Did you ask whether Americans think Condit is involved?

NEWPORT: Yes. We've asked that twice and have not found a lot of change. In mid-July, 65% said it was at least somewhat likely that Gary Condit was directly involved in the disappearance of Chandra Levy. We just finished re-asking that question this weekend, and found 64% who said it was likely. In other words, despite the fact that Condit's lawyer announced that Condit had passed a lie-detector test, and despite the fact that there have been no new major revelations connecting Condit to the case, the public still seems to be inclined to suspect that he was directly involved.

CNN: How do people rate the media coverage of this case?

NEWPORT: In our mid-July poll, we asked about how responsible the news media had been in their coverage of the case, and found that six out of 10 said the media had been responsible. That, on a relative basis, isn't a bad score card. For example, Americans were much more negative when we asked them how responsible the media had been in handling news surrounding the run-in with authorities the Bush daughters had, relating to underage drinking. So, I would say, at least so far, the public is fairly positive about the way the story has been covered -- the protestations of Dan Rather notwithstanding.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: How long can stories on Chandra Levy and meteors cover the stories waiting to be told on Cheney's Energy Task Force or Bush quashing an EEOC investigation for some campaign donors in Texas? These stories may be less racy, but Woodward and Bernstein didn't make their names covering Nixon's sex life.

NEWPORT: As long as there has been journalism, there have been questions and disputes about what should or shouldn't be covered. Personally, I think one great advantage we have today with the large number of media outlets is that almost any story gets covered by somebody. Obviously, some people think that certain stories should be given more prominent play than they are, but the huge mix of media that we have, I think, works fairly well in sifting through news, and allowing what's important to see the light of day.

CHAT PARTICIPANT: Did you ask if Americans think a political rival may have been involved?

NEWPORT: No, we did not get into the specifics of what Americans think happened to Chandra Levy precisely. We did some pilot testing where we asked Americans to tell us what they think had happened, and got some interesting results, but have not yet made the decision to ask Americans directly for their theories on the case.

CNN: Do people believe that this case will ever be solved?

NEWPORT: About half do. That hasn't changed much either, over the last couple of weeks. To be precise, 51% say it will be solved, and 38% say it will never be solved. That's very close to what we found on July 10. We've asked that same question just once before, and that was relating to Jon Benet Ramsey, about 11 months after her murder, and found then that a much smaller number of Americans thought that case would ever be solved. And, of course, to this point in time, they were right on that score.

CNN: Do you have any final thoughts for us today?

NEWPORT: Well, turning to something totally different, we found something quite interesting in a recent poll. 59% of Americans say they would like to lose weight. The interesting fact is that only 25% say they currently are seriously trying to lose weight. So, we have a huge pent-up demand here for help, it seems to us, with very large numbers of Americans thinking they should do something, but not doing it, at this point in time. Hence it seems that any entrepreneur with us today knows exactly where there's money to be made, if he or she can simply figure out an easy, fool-proof way to help people lose weight. It's that simple. :) By the way, the average woman in our poll says that she is 19 pounds overweight. The average man says he is 12 pounds overweight. There you have it.

CNN: As always, thanks for joining us today Frank Newport.

NEWPORT: Good to be with you again!

Frank Newport joined the CNN.com Newsroom via telephone from Princeton, NJ. CNN provided a typist for him. The above is an edited transcript of the interview on Tuesday, July 24, 2001.