This time, the tabloids are the story in Florida
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, October 9, 2001
By Allen G. Breed
Associated Press
BOCA RATON, Fla. — The supermarket tabloids suddenly had the inside scoop on a bizarre and scary story, one with the added advantage of being true: Anthrax Discovered in Newspaper Building!
This time, the tabs weren’t just covering the story — they were the story. Anthrax had killed a tabloid editor, turned up on his computer keyboard and found its way into the nose of mailroom co-worker.
A shaken staff accustomed to facing a certain amount of ridicule found itself handling a deadly serious story in its own back yard.
"It is a perfect tabloid story, but it’s awful," said Malcolm Balfour, a former longtime National Enquirer editor whose son, Grant, writes for The Sun. "I can’t even make jokes about that."
The six-tabloid empire of American Media Inc. became the story last week when Robert Stevens, 63, a photo editor at The Sun, was diagnosed with inhaled anthrax, a rare and particularly deadly form of the disease. He died on Friday, the first such death in the United States since 1976.
Most employees had convinced themselves this was an isolated, naturally occurring case until Monday, when officials said Ernesto Blanco, a 73-year-old mailroom employee at American Media headquarters, had anthrax spores in his nasal passages. Then it was announced that spores had been found on Stevens’ computer keyboard.
The Boca Raton headquarters was shut down and hundreds of employees received middle-of-the-night calls directing them to be tested for anthrax. Workers and their families walked out with a 15-day supply of 500-milligram Cipro antibiotic pills — and a lot of unanswered questions.
"Why would you go after a supposedly crazy outfit like the Enquirer?" asked senior reporter Bennet Bolton. "If this were a terrorist attack, for God sakes, why would you go after a bunch of tabloids which are looked down on by the so-called straight press?"
The story broke too late for the three tabloids most affected to get it into their next issues, which hit the newsstands Oct. 16, American Media said. The tabloids’ deadline was Monday. "But it will be covered in depth in the subsequent edition," company spokesman Gerald McKelvey said.
But it is clear many are shaken at a place where people are not used to being taken seriously and where front pages carry headlines like last year’s "Space Alien Backs Bush for President!" Reporters who usually guard their notes and source files jealously are turning over computer passwords and e-mail account information to investigators.
Balfour, who has done anthrax stories this week for the New York Post and "Entertainment Tonight," can see where some would find a kind of irony in all this. But it’s hard for him to take, knowing his son worked 30 feet from Stevens’ desk.
"Obviously, this is something that none of us ever dreamed that we would even be facing, and I think it kind of pulls you all together," said Patricia Towle, who has written for the Enquirer for 22 years. "This is not a fun story to be on this side of."
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