The Fear Factor: The Anthrax Threat

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• TERENCE SMITH:

  For a sampling of anthrax anxiety, we're joined by three reporters: Craig Schneider of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Tanyanika Samuels of the Kansas City Star, and Todd Bensman of the Dallas Morning News. Welcome to all of you. Todd Bensman, have you had your share of scares in Dallas?

• TODD BENSMAN:

  Well, the Dallas-Fort Worth area has had its share of jitters certainly, more than 300 calls have been logged at the FBI that had to be checked. In addition to that, probably about 100 pieces of material have actually been tested. There have been no positive finds at this point, but there have been quite a bit of nervous jitters and lots of jangling around Dallas-Fort Worth.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  Any of the closing of buildings or other things that we saw on the taped reports?

• TODD BENSMAN:

  Well, there have been a number of buildings have had to be closed and evacuated. HAZMAT teams have had to go out. There has been a lot of inconvenience in that way. There have been a lot of mostly just frivolous kind of reports, a lot of panic. Here over the weekend, we had some windstorms in town that were blowing spider webs around. People called in, they thought that maybe F-16 jets had dropped these spider webs. There have been reports, you know, as frivolous as potato chip bags that had salt in the bottom.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  Tanyanika Samuels, in Kansas City, what's the situation there?

• TANYANIKA SAMUELS:

  I think we have a similar situation, where people are generally nervous that, you know this can happen here, as well. The local HAZMAT teams have, you know, received dozens upon dozens of calls, all false alarms of course, and some hoaxes. There have been anything from, you know, people calling about suspicious powder on toys and the store has removed the toys and the store has removed the toy, then it turns out it's just dust. We've had false alarms where it's been talcum powder, baking soda, paper dust, I mean just about anything that's a white powder has been causing a lot of concern around here.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  So people are seeing or imagining danger in just about everything?

• TANYANIKA SAMUELS:

  Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  Craig Schneider, in Atlanta, of course you have the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control there. What's the situation in Atlanta?

• CRAIG SCHNEIDER:

  Well, Atlanta is by no means immune from what's going on around the country. People are afraid, and they feel as though they may be victimized. It ranges from a woman who picks up a package of grapes in the supermarket and sees the white film around it, that becomes a call to police for anthrax. It's gotten to the point where a spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency is starting to urge people to show some restraint and some common sense. She said, "Sometimes if you get a package, a sample of coffee in the mail and it has a powder in it, chances are it's coffee."

• TERENCE SMITH:

  Todd Bensman, in Dallas, I know there's a…you mentioned the FBI, and there's an important FBI office there. Are they actively investigating this, along the lines that the Attorney General talked about?

• TODD BENSMAN:

  Well, this…the Dallas-Fort Worth area is one of several centers of gravity for the terror investigation, mainly because of its proximity to American Airlines, which as you know, had two of its jets involved in this. But also because the Dallas FBI has probably had one of the oldest standing counterterrorism task forces, so they're very, very busy. There was a press conference a couple of days ago at which they, on cue from Washington, no doubt, pleaded with the public to stand down just a little bit, to think twice before calling.

  However, at that time, I think this was Monday, there were about 180 calls for anthrax responses. And after that press conference, it's almost more than doubled. We're looking at more than 300 now. So I'm not sure how much effect that's had. But they are complaining that this is drawing critical resources away at a critical time.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  And thereby, leaving other crimes or potential crimes not investigated or prosecuted?

• TODD BENSMAN:

  Well, that could be said for, you know, pretty much cities all over the country. You know, basic common crimes that were pre-September 11 are being handled but probably a little bit to a lesser degree than the FBI and other agencies would wish.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  Tanyanika Samuels, in Kansas City, how are people coping with this? I mean you're out and about talking to them. Jitters or calm?

• TANYANIKA SAMUELS:

  Oh no. Absolute jitters, absolute jitters. I think it really started on Friday with that first report at the NBC studios in New York, and that's when the calls really started to come in and like I said, anything little thing that looks like white dust has been triggering a lot of these calls. And it's really beginning to take a toll on our local HAZMAT teams here. As a matter of fact, they've started going non-emergency to calls about white powder unless someone calls in with symptoms of anthrax exposure. They're going non-emergency at this point.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  And they've not had any of those, of symptoms?

• TANYANIKA SAMUELS:

  No. No. Everything has been a false alarm or a hoax up to this point.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  Craig Schneider, I wonder whether the coverage of all this is in a way contributing to the jitters and the concern?

• CRAIG SCHNEIDER:

  Well, I think the coverage has been responsible. I think people look to the media for information, and these are the things that are happening, and when they hear that these things are continuing, it raises their own level of concern. And it ends up, indeed, affecting police services and here in the Atlanta area, some departments, again, are asking more questions when the 911 call comes in, and they're not sending out the troops right away.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  What about the situation at the…at your paper, at the Journal Constitution, since it's a media organization, greater security there?

• CRAIG SCHNEIDER:

  Oh, certainly. We have the guards at the front door are, you know… have got their eyes peeled. And we already have a lot of security in the building, but it's definitely been stepped up, and we all are wearing our ID tags, and they're checking picture IDs at the front. The guys who handle the mail are wearing rubber gloves.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  So you feel yourselves a potential target, as well?

• CRAIG SCHNEIDER:

  Well, we're seeing that other media is being targeted, and you have to wonder…you have to think, what better way to terrorize the public than to terrorize the messenger?

• TERENCE SMITH:

  Todd Bensman, in Dallas, how do you think people are coping with this?

• TODD BENSMAN:

  I think probably about the same. You know, the Dallas Morning News and other media outlets in town have stepped up security, you know, we also have to wear our badges and I think management has made rubber gloves and facemasks available to anybody who wants them. I think it's pretty much the same here, too.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  I don't assume that the reporters are going around wearing rubber gloves and facemasks.

• TODD BENSMAN:

  I haven't picked mine up yet.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  All right. It's a matter of coverage, there's an issue of coverage, sometimes contributing not only to jitters, but to the proliferation of hoaxes. Have you established any guidelines at your paper as to how to cover hoaxes? Do you put them in the paper, or do you deliberately keep them out?

• TODD BENSMAN:

  Well, I think that there's a certain amount of restraint that goes on. But if you have a situation where large numbers of people are being evacuated from a big building, as we've had happen, we report on it.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  Tanyanika Samuels, what about you?

• TANYANIKA SAMUELS:

  We have a similar situation at the Kansas City Star. We have stopped reporting every single anthrax scare that's coming out, unless there's a situation where we have a lot of people evacuated or a hoax where the prosecutors are actively pursuing charges against the prankster. We've really scaled that down a lot.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  Craig Schneider, any sense of the investigative activity, what's going on there? What are you hearing, and do they feel they're making any progress?

• CRAIG SCHNEIDER:

  I think that the police are continuing to answer every call, and they're being a little bit more cautious as to, you know, as I said, sending out the troops. As to whether or not they're starting to catch some of the people who are doing the hoaxes, I don't know at this point.

• TERENCE SMITH:

  All right. We'll have to stay tuned. Thank you, all of you three of you, very much.