Anthrax case jolts nation's supermarket tabloid firms

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 a 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?"

Wild speculation

As they waited in hours-long lines for tests and treatment, employees wracked their brains trying to recall anything suspicious in the past few weeks. There was wild speculation about the source of the anthrax.

Suspicion initially landed on a summer intern from Florida Atlantic University who had left behind what Bolton called a cryptic e-mail message. Jordan Arizmendi, who is of Spanish-Basque descent, not Middle Eastern, was interviewed by the FBI on Monday and quickly ruled out as a suspect.

Now, he and 11 other interns must be tested for anthrax as well.

"He's a victim as much as anyone else in this is," university spokesman Bob Nichols said.

Employees also zeroed in on a letter that arrived at the building about a week before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Newsweek magazine said inside the "weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez" was a powdery substance and a Jewish charm. The FBI has not commented on the letter.

The story broke too late for the three tabloids most affected to get it into their next issues, which will hit the newsstands Tuesday, 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. "My son is exposed," he said. "I'm very worried. It's a serious situation."

It will take days for the test results to come back.