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Media's presses roll
Assuring public its tabloids are safe from anthrax
By Jeff Bercovici
With one of its employees dead and its offices sealed off, matters got even worse yesterday for American Media, publisher of the National Enquirer and other supermarket tabloids.
A third employee tested positive for anthrax, heightening fears of those who worked in the building and are still awaiting results of their own tests.
The FBI officially labeled the case a criminal investigation, and health authorities said American Media's main offices will have to remain sealed off for at least 30 days for inspection and decontamination.
Appearing on "Larry King Live" last night, American Media CEO David Pecker called the anthrax outbreak "devastating" and said he thought his company was being targeted.
Pecker also had to deal with fears from magazine consumers and distributors that the disease could be spread through handling contaminated magazines.
To try to quell such fears, Pecker issued a statement yesterday stressing that all of the printing and distribution of the magazines takes place at other sites.
Pecker also quoted a statement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reading, "The public is at no risk of disease from handling printed paper. There is no risk of exposure of anthrax being transmitted by handling any tabloids or any publications published by American Media."
Production of the company's magazines is continuing as scheduled, with the staff working out of other American Media offices in South Florida, said Pecker.
Some press reports speculated that the anthrax outbreak may have been the work of supporters of Osama bin Laden, the suspected terrorist mastermind, who has been ridiculed by several of the tabloids over recent weeks.
"American Media has not been given any intelligence of any kind that lends any credence to that," said company spokesman Gerald McKelvey.
Another day of inquiries into the bizarre outbreak of anthrax at the Florida offices of American Media yielded no conclusive evidence as to its origin.
But the clues investigators were able to unearth strengthened the suspicions of those who believe that the sudden appearance of the lethal disease was the work of criminals or even terrorists.
The day's biggest revelation came when law enforcement officials said the strain of anthrax bacteria that killed Sun photo editor Bob Stevens appears to match one that was isolated at an Iowa research facility in the 1950s.
Final tests to confirm the match are still pending, but if it turns out to be the same strain, investigators say that will rule out the possibility that Stevens contracted the disease through natural means.
Investigators also said yesterday that two of the men suspected of hijacking planes in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had subscriptions to supermarket tabloids published by American Media, whose titles include the National Enquirer, the Star, the Globe and the Sun.
Prior to yesterday, the only two employees known to be infected with the disease were Stevens, who died on Friday, and Ernesto Blanco, a mailroom worker who was treated with antibiotics after a nasal swab detected the presence of anthrax spores in his upper respiratory tract.
Most employees have now undergone nasal swab tests to check for the presence of spores, but blood tests that will show whether they were exposed to anthrax are being conducted now, and results will not be known for two to three weeks.
Amid fears that terrorists may now be targeting the news media, publishers across the country are reviewing and tightening their security procedures.
The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Miami Herald all say that they have taken appropriate security measures following Sept. 11 but decline to discuss those measures.
A spokesperson for The New York Times said the company has begun x-raying all packages that come into the building, but that no additional precautions have been taken in response to the anthrax threat.
Investigators are looking into the possibility that anthrax spores entered the American Media offices in an envelope containing a suspicious letter.
October 11, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life.
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