the audit

Unsettling News From Liberty Street

January 21, 2009

The WSJ reports:

The Wall Street Journal has received more than a dozen envelopes containing an unknown white powder, and New York City police and hazardous materials crews are investigating the matter, a spokesman said.

The mail was addressed to several New York-based executives at the newspaper published by News Corp.’s Dow Jones & Co. At least 10 of the envelopes are being held in the mailroom of the Journal’s Lower Manhattan headquarters, while at least three others have been distributed throughout the building, the spokesman said.

The floor shared by newspaper executives and editorial-page employees has been evacuated.

A Dow Jones executive sent New York City-based Journal employees an email cautioning them not to open any mail. “While we don’t think there is cause for alarm at this time, we are asking everyone not to open any mail while we investigate,” Dow Jones vice president of communications Howard Hoffman said in the email.

Scary. And reminiscent of harrowing powder scares in the days after 9/11. Our thoughts are with our friends downtown.

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Dean Starkman Dean Starkman runs The Audit, CJR’s business section, and is the author of The Watchdog That Didn’t Bark: The Financial Crisis and the Disappearance of Investigative Journalism (Columbia University Press, January 2014). Follow Dean on Twitter: @deanstarkman.