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: Lawbeat

LAT anthrax scoop chock full of detail

By Mark Obbie

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The LA Times' David Willman scoops the competition about the apparent suicide of a suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks. Anonymously and occasionally vaguely sourced -- except for direct quotes from the suspect's sworn statement to investigators -- Willman's story is packed with detail about an investigation that has now burst into the open with the death Tuesday of the suspect, Bruce Ivins, who worked at the government's biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md. By early morning, The New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal were forced to post an AP story crediting the LAT. One detail in the story makes clear that Willman was working the Ivins angle at least in the week preceding Ivins' suicide:

Ivins was committed to a facility in Frederick for treatment of his depression. On July 24, he was released from the facility, operated by Sheppard Pratt Health System. A telephone call that same day by The Times verified that Ivins' government voice mail was still functioning at the bacteriology division of USAMRIID.

Willman's story, perhaps understandably, is entirely skewed to the government's point of view. Now, let's see if the Times and its competition maintain a sense of skepticism about the truth of those publicly unproven and unchallenged suspicions, in light of the Steven Hatfill fiasco.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on August 01, 2008 (boomark / email).