An Open Letter to Anonymous

It amazes me to what extent some people would go to when trying to put fear into a reporter. But what people don’t understand is that for the most part reporters over time become fearless. We do our jobs to seek out the truth and we accept the consequences that come with that. No matter what they might be.

With that said I have been attacked, stalked, yelled at, threatened and harassed more times than I can count since my career started ten years ago. So when someone decides to write a letter that would try to embarrass my staff or myself for a non-story all I can do is laugh.

Recently we had to end the investigation of story that was going nowhere. It happens. Not because there is a lack of information, but mostly because there is a lack of credible sources. When this happens a reporter and editor have to decide what makes the most sense. We never want to kill a story especially after investing time and effort, but unfortunately when there isn’t enough to make a case there isn’t anything a reporter can do. We can’t just make everything anonymous. At some point someone needs to step up and say, “please use my comments ‘on the record.’” When that doesn’t happen the impact of a story won’t be the same. This doesn’t mean we’ll never write it, but at this moment in time the story has gone cold. The leads are cold and there aren’t enough resources to go further. Sometimes it’s just better coming back to it at a later time and exploring new angles.

When I was first breaking into journalism I investigated a baseball player who was allegedly working for bookmakers. He was a pitcher and would purposely throw baseball games so that bookmakers could bet heavy against him to win. I was on a three-man team that worked different angles to find the truth. While we were able to get enough information to make it believable for us, there wasn’t enough there that would prove this story to the public. We had a bunch of anonymous sources, all of which did not want to talk on the record about it. Not one. This is a reporter’s worst nightmare. Because we know the truth, but we just can’t get enough to prove it to everyone else. The end result was our team was disbanded and the editor killed the story, unfortunately never to be looked into again.

Our case is similar. We investigated a story for a few months. Working every lead we had. When it came down to it there weren’t any anonymous sources that would speak on the record. To top it off some of the sources we did have just weren’t credible enough. They didn’t have a good track record and we doubted if all the information we gathered was accurate. When informed that we would no longer be working on the story, one of the sources began to act inappropriately.

Understandably upset this source began harassing one of our staff members and I had to intercede. After a conversation where it seemed as though we had reached an understanding, the source followed up by sending an anonymous letter to several members of our staff including others who are associated with the magazine. I can’t tell you how that disappoints me. Here you have someone who I felt I was civil with, but instead this person decides that a letter trying to embarrass us will some how make us refocus our efforts and get back into the story.

The one thing a reporter will always have over these people is that we are up front and center. Our bylines are always on everything we write. We don’t hide behind bogus email addresses, blocked IP addresses, and phony names. When we write something it has to be the truth otherwise we won’t be in this business very long. That’s something this person and others like him don’t understand. We can’t just put anything in print. We’re not a casual blog or a fan message board, we are an objective media outlet that lives on the reputation of truth and we do our best to always get both sides of a story.

Reporters also have the responsibility of keeping anonymous sources, anonymous. It means we can’t betray the very people who reveal information to us. So as much as we’d like to tell everyone who reads this, the source of our harassment, we won’t. So to the person who keeps leaving anonymous comments on our website and continues emailing people who know us, show yourself if you want. That is the first step to getting people to believe what your saying. Otherwise no one cares.