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Jonathan Alter fell for a Condit girlfriend impersonator,when he was a guest on the Imus show-the bit was hysterical, because her claims were so over the top and Alter bought it hook,line and sinker. This is from the mediaresearch.org website-

" WARNING: Though everything in this item aired during the 8am EDT hour on MSNBC, some readers may be offended by the crude sexual innuendo.]

A gullible Jonathan Alter of Newsweek was fooled by a joke appearance on Imus in the Morning by a pretend "Anne Marie Smith," the flight attendant who says Gary Condit asked her to sign a false affidavit.

Alter, who defended Clinton against calls that he should resign, later argued that in Condit’s case: "Everybody should be calling for him to resign, whether he had anything to do with her disappearance or not. In a real serious matter he was not straight-forward."

On Thursday’s Imus in the Morning radio show simulcast on MSNBC, during the appearance by phone of a woman pretending to be Smith, she made some pretty wild claims, such as how Condit’s blow-dried hair "turned me on," that Condit asked her to take showers with him while she wore a Barney Frank mask as she bent over to pick up soap, that under his bed she found "a limited edition ‘Malibu Barbie S&M Collection,’" that she believes black hairs she saw in Condit’s bathroom belonged to Michael Jackson, that during sex Condit played Jackson’s song ‘Billie Jean’ while making "high-pitched noises" and that she has an agent working to get her on the next Survivor series.

A few minutes later, Alter scolded the supposed Anne Marie Smith: "She’s turning this thing into a farce. It’s not like a normal sex case, we’re talking about a young woman’s life." But he believed "a lot of what she said could very well be true."

MRC analyst Ken Shepherd alerted me to the events on the July 12 show, starting at about 8:15am EDT with an appearance by phone of "Anne Marie Smith" in a not very funny comedy bit during which viewers saw Imus at his New Mexico ranch studio and his on-air colleagues behind microphones at WFAN in New York City.

Some of "Anne Marie Smith’s" recollections, starting with how they met on a flight: "I gave him a hot towel and he asked me if I wanted a hot sausage." She found him attractive because "there’s something about that blow-dried hair. It just turned me on."

-- "One of his obsessions is with Congressman Barney Frank and I always thought that was a little strange. One time he bought me this rubber mask. Imus, it looked just like him and asked me to take a shower with him wearing this mask. He kept dropping the soap and asking me to pick it up..."

-- Under Condit’s bed she found "a limited edition ‘Malibu Barbie S&M Collection’ and the ‘Bend Me Over Ken’ line."

-- Imus: "What, what about the hair that you found in the bathroom?"
"Smith": "Okay, I have my own theory about this hair. It’s very strange, though. A long black hair, wavy hair. I really think it belongs to Michael Jackson. I mean, let me just say, okay, this sounds weird but he had an obsession with Michael Jackson also. He had all of his albums. ‘Billy Jean’ is his favorite song. He’d always play it during sex and make these high-pitched noises. It was so weird. And then I found these left-handed gloves that were stained all over the apartment one time..."

-- "And by the way I have been contacted by CBS. I may be going on their next Survivor show. I’m just not sure yet at this point. I’ve got an agent and you know we’re going to see, maybe Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire could call me or I just, you know, I don’t know, we’ll see."

Ten minutes later, at just past 8:30am EDT, Imus talked with Alter on the phone. Alter’s first words: "That was a mind-blowing interview. I mean, I didn’t know what to make of it. What did you think?"
Imus: "With Anne Marie Smith?"
Alter: "Yeah."
Imus: "I thought she was jerking my chain on the Barney Frank mask frankly."
Alter: "She wants to go on Survivor?"

Alter soon reprimanded her: "I mean, she’s turning this thing into a farce. It’s not like a normal sex case, we’re talking about a young woman’s life."
Imus: "Well, I understand that."
Alter: "It’s just very peculiar. But she certainly gave everybody a lot of new angles. Michael Jackson’s hair?"
Imus: "Well, I do think that sometimes when people appear on this program they think they have to say funny things. But I do think that most of the other things she had to say were, obviously, I do think we are going to find out before this whole thing is over that some sort of weird sex has something to do with it."
Alter: "A lot of what she said could very well be true..."

Alter proceeded to recount a story in that morning’s Washington Post about a minister who claims his daughter had an affair with Condit when she was 18.

Imus then tried to clue in Alter: "Let me ask you something Jonathan. Did you think that was really Anne Marie Smith?"
Alter, realizing he’d been fooled: "Mmmm, no. I wasn’t sure. I just caught the end of it to tell you the truth. So, I didn’t know what it was. You know, that’s the problem with the show, it’s hard to know. She’s coming forward. She’s saying a lot of pretty amazing stuff."
Imus: "It was Kristi (sp?) out in the newsroom, Jonathan."
Alter: "It was Kristi. Alright, you had me. That’s what happens when you jump out of the shower."
Imus: "You really are just a moron."

Alter later conceded: "Sorry, you got me. That’s what happens when life imitates art in America."

Alter reflected a bit of a different attitude toward Condit than he had toward Bill Clinton: "I just know that at this point, that Condit should resign. Because at a minimum, he was obstructing an investigation."
Imus: "By lying."
Alter: "By lying to the police."

He soon added: "Everybody should be calling for him to resign, whether he had anything to do with her disappearance or not. In a real serious matter, he was not straight-forward."

A new standard for Alter. A couple of years ago a certain politician who was "obstructing an investigation" and was not being "straight-forward" didn’t prompt Alter to call for his resignation. "

From a Reuters article on Free Republic in late August, 1998:

...Starr refused to answer questions about his investigation of the Lewinsky affair. He also declined comment on the possible impact on his probe of Clinton's decision to launch military strikes earlier Thursday at "terrorist-related'' bases in Afghanistan and Sudan.

The target of the attacks was a terrorist group allegedly involved in the recent bombing of U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

But the strike led some cynics to draw comparisons with the Hollywood movie "Wag the Dog'', in which a U.S. president pretends to launch a war to draw public attention away from a sex scandal.

Starr laughed when he was asked by a reporter whether he had seen the movie. "I guess I shouldn't comment, but yes, I've seen it," he said...

in the thread, FR poster 'go star go' observes:

The little smart a** guy with Newsweek [Jonathan Alter] made reference to this this afternoon. In his opinion this was Ken Starr implying that the attacks might be wag the dog and Ken Starr might live to regret that implication. Only problem is there was no implication. In fact the little smart a** was reading into Judge Starr's comments things that were not there. All this from a fully educated member of the mass media not knowing the difference between implied and projection.