How Anthrax Out-Tabloided the Tabloids

Despite having the world’s leading psychics and astrologers on their payroll, America’s supermarket tabloids apparently didn’t foresee an outbreak of anthrax at their headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla.

More than a half-dozen employees have been exposed--one fatally--in what is being investigated as an apparent terrorist attack on American Media Inc., owner of the National Enquirer, Star, Globe, Weekly World News, Sun and National Examiner. Anthrax incidents have since spread to other media outlets, businesses and government offices.

It’s the kind of lurid tale the tabloids themselves might trumpet, except they haven’t had the chance. Printing deadlines prevented them from writing about the event in their current editions.

But a spokesman promised in-depth coverage in issues hitting newsstands later this week. “Read all about it,” Gerald McKelvey said. “You’ll see a lot of exclusives. It’s literally their story.”

A hint of the flavor of that coverage came Wednesday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” when American Media Chairman David Pecker called the anthrax contamination “the first bioterrorism attack in the United States.”

By Sunday, Bush administration officials were also using the term “bioterrorism.”

Why would someone target supermarket tabloids? Pecker didn’t speculate, nor did he return phone calls seeking further comment.

Some commentators have theorized that anthrax spores were unleashed on the tabloids in retaliation for their inflammatory coverage of Osama bin Laden. However, no evidence of such a link has been found, and Pecker has scoffed at the notion that his papers would be singled out for revenge.

“We haven’t done anything more than the New York Post or the Daily News or any of the other mainstream media,” he said.

Well, that’s debatable.

Although tabloid coverage of Bin Laden doesn’t involve Elvis or Bigfoot--yet--it has been characteristically outrageous. In the Oct. 2 edition of the Globe, for example, the cover featured a photo of Bin Laden with the headline, “Wanted! Dead or Alive,” with “or Alive” scratched out.

Inside, the tabloid claimed that Bin Laden “suffers from a medical condition that left him with underdeveloped sex organs, and his hatred of the United States began when an American girl laughed at his problem.”

The Globe’s Oct. 9 issue wasn’t much kinder. Under the headline “Bin Laden the Butcher Exposed,” it branded him an opium addict and said he flouts the Koran by condoning gang rape and boozing among his men. The newest issue reports on “Bin Laden’s Sick Diary of Torture.”

In similar fashion, the wacky Weekly World News plastered its Oct. 9 cover with Bin Laden’s head as viewed through rifle crosshairs. “Need We Say More?” asked the headline.

Inside, columnist Ed Anger penned a “Dear Osama” letter (purportedly sent to Bin Laden via the Afghanistan consulate in New York), challenging him to a one-on-one duel.

“Let’s settle this thing once and for all, just me and you. ... If you’re too yellow to come out of your hole, dung breath, we can handle that, too. American warplanes will hit you like 20,000 bats out of hell.

By comparison, the National Enquirer, the Weekly World News’ sister publication, seems almost tame with such headlines as “I Dated a Terrorist” and “Now You Can Wipe the Smile Off Bin Laden’s Face,” an article about toilet paper emblazoned with Bin Laden’s mug.

The Oct. 9 Enquirer also carried a personal message from Pecker endorsing President Bush’s statement that “the enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends.”

American Media’s other publications have focused mostly on Nostradamus predictions (“America Will Win by Spring!”) and how Sept. 11 has affected celebrities.

“Regis’ son escapes Pentagon inferno” screamed a headline in the National Examiner. “First Lady’s Secret Pact With Oprah ... to help president in war against terrorist cowards,” offered the Star.

Also in the Star was an “exclusive report” in which Rudy Boesch, the 73-year-old ex-Navy SEAL who competed on CBS’ “Survivor,” was chomping at the bit to tangle with Bin Laden.

“Scum like that don’t deserve to live,” he reportedly said. “Give me a couple of minutes with him, and we won’t need no invasion.”

Then again, Survivor Rudy might be too late. The Oct. 16 edition of the Weekly World News reports that Bat Boy, a half-human, half-bat who is a tabloid staple, escaped from a Chicago hospital to help combat terrorism.

Whether Bat Boy can help restore American Media’s sales figures remains unclear. Pre-anthrax, the tabloids had a combined weekly circulation of 4.6 million on newsstands and 300,000 from subscribers (two of whom were among the Sept. 11 hijackers, according to the Miami Herald).

But last week, rumors began swirling that readers could become infected with anthrax by handling copies of the papers. “I’m getting calls from retailers all over the United States that our customers are afraid to touch the papers,” Pecker said on “Larry King Live.”

In response, American Media issued a statement noting that no printing or shipping of its publications was done from the Boca Raton office where anthrax spores were found.

“The printing and shipping of AMI tabloids is handled by five plants around the country, none of which are located in Florida,” said the statement, which also quoted a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention news conference assuring the public it faced “no risk of exposure [from] handling any tabloids or publications published by American Media.”