From WNYC in New York, this is On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield. And I'm Brooke Gladstone. In a week of relentless

anthrax coverage, much of the anxiety has centered on the confusing and contradictory information flowing out of a variety of government offices.

Until recently, we heard little from the CDC and the Surgeon General, and hardly at all from the newly created director of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge.

Mostly, we heard from Tommy Thompson, the head of the Department of Health and Human Services,

and his grasp on the information seemed to some disconcertingly upbeat.

For instance, when Robert Stevens, photo editor at the Florida-based Sun Tabloid,

was found to be infected, Thompson opined that he might have contracted it by drinking from a stream,

and on another point, just this week,

Ted Coppola Nightline felt compelled to correct him. And we've been able to respond to the

outbreak of anthrax in Florida and New York and now in Washington. And we've been there. So I don't

think that I have been too optimistic. I think that we've been

able to respond. You do realize when you talk about the outbreaks of anthrax, you haven't had an outbreak

of anthrax yet. You haven't had a major anthrax attack yet. That is true.

I mean, in the event of a major anthrax attack, late this weekist... Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge finally stepped up to the microphones to calm the public's fears.

But some believe the damage to the government's credibility will be hard to repair.

Surgeon General David Satcher, appointed by the Clinton administration, was quiet in the early

days of the crisis, but has been on the record frequently this week.

He joins us now. Dr. Satcher, thanks for coming on.

Thank you, Brooke. I'm delighted to be with you.

Anne Smithson, who is a bioterrorism expert at the Henrial Stimson Center, told the New York Times that one of the lessons drawn from Florida is that the first thing Americans need to hear is a voice

that speaks from knowledge, not from hyperbole. The country was attacked and traumatized on September 11th,

but the scars created in recent weeks may actually be much more difficult to recover from.

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