Tipster

I got my journalism "break" from an anonymous tip left on the voicemail of my dorm room phone. The female voice didn't leave a name or contact number, but she told me a time and place to show up, and I did. A whole slew of stories then unfolded, and I feel my entire journalism career is thanks to that tip. It got me into this story, got me investigating, got me loving the deadline rush and nervous feeling of asking the tough questions. It got me a journalism award, a scholarship, and it set the stage for other stories that were similar.

Tonight I sent an e-mail to the editor in chief of the student newspaper with a semi-anonymous tip about some stuff I'd heard went down on TCU campus. What supposedly happened is similar to something that happened when I was the EIC, and I had a reporter who did some digging and it turned into a good story for a while. I dunno if the editor will use it, but it was worth a shot to send her the info and let her do with it what she wants.

Sending all that information made me feel a little bit silly. I wondered what the woman who left me the tip felt when she called me. I got the feeling like maybe I was just being overly confident--I mean, who am I to send her a 'tip'? Who even uses that word any more, except over-eager PR people who are just trying to sell a client, anyway?

But I'd seen a situation similar, and I'd been a reporter fielding a tip and an editor telling a reporter to follow that similar situation. Surely I know more than the average person about what qualifies as a good tip or suggestion, right?

I don't know what the paper EIC will decide to do with it, but as a journalist and former editor, I could go either way--she could either ignore it or follow-up on it, since it's a kind of in-between situation. (I'm not going to divulge more information about the situation on the net because, HELLO, it's a tip. Tip = not substantiated but any real reporting.) The whole thing makes me really, really hope that someone leaves me an awesome tip again soon. I think the last good one I got was a bit over a year ago. And that's only if you don't count when someone tells me there are donuts in the break room. Because those are the BEST tips.