WITH JORDAN MARSH replaced by Macy’s and the Boston Globe owned by the New York Times, the case for Bostonian exceptionalism is tough to make these days. The Vault, that storied organization of the city’s leading business leaders, vanished years ago along with many locally owned institutions. Even Locke-Ober, the former lunching place of Boston elites, has closed (though it’s scheduled to reopen with a new owner in the fall). But there is one ray of hope. Boston seems to have turned up its collective nose at the story of California congressman Gary Condit’s possible involvement in the disappearance of 24-year-old former Washington, DC, intern Chandra Levy.

Turn on cable news these days and you’ll hear only one story — Condit. When the congressman appeared on ABC’s PrimeTime Thursday with Connie Chung on August 23, the three 24-hour cable news stations treated the event as if the 101st Airborne had just parachuted into Baghdad. The Fox News Channel presented a special edition of Hannity & Colmes well into the night. The pundits were fully arrayed on MSNBC. And even CNN’s Jeff Greenfield, a Yale Law School graduate usually given to serious political analysis, used his show to focus on the sordid saga. The same treatment can be found in the glossy magazines: this month both Vanity Fair and Talk carry detailed Condit stories.

Here in Boston, however, Condit hasn’t reached first-tier status. The Globe has fronted the story just once since June — the morning after Chung’s interview. The Boston Herald has given it front-page treatment twice: on July 14 to report on a polygraph exam administered by Condit’s legal team, and again the day after the Chung interview. Beyond that, nobody around here seems all that interested. We’ve been too busy with Max Kennedy’s abandoned bid for Congress, Tom Finneran’s power plays, and Jane Swift’s husband’s previous marriages.

During a July debate among the candidates vying to replace the late Joe Moakley in the Ninth Congressional District, Channel 56 political analyst Jon Keller asked: what would they tell Condit if they got to Capitol Hill? None of the candidates seemed willing to discuss it. State Senator Stephen Lynch of South Boston went so far as to say he didn’t think it was his place to say anything at all to the man. No problem. None of the voters seemed to mind, and the question was quickly forgotten.

WBZ Radio talk-show host David Brudnoy says he’s devoted only three hours to the subject — all of which seemed to lack energy. " I’ve declared the show Condit-free territory until they find Chandra’s body or Condit resigns, " he says.