Community Corner

Anonymous Letters and Tips Are Not The Way To Go

The most powerful messages are delivered with a byline or a simple signature.


I have been a journalist for my entire working career.

This year marks my 25th year in this profession that I love.

Now a lot has changed over those 25 years. I started typing on a typewriter and handing in my copy to the editor who then sent it to a typesetter then a layout artist and so on and so on and so on. 

Today journalists are asked to be graphic designers, web masters, editors, photographers, clerks...you name the job, and journalists fill it. 

But any journalist worth the buck newspapers are sold for or the time people spend on their websites, like Berlin Patch, will tell you one thing. If you send an anonymous letter or e-mail to the journalist, you are a coward. 

Why am I saying this?

After a long and great day of sporting events with my kids Saturday, I got home and grabbed the mail before walking in the house. It was the usual; a few bills, a few advertisements and one odd looking white envelope. 

There was no return address, just a stamp. It was addressed to Bob Mayer at my home address but my name and address was written in some weird block lettering as to throw off the scent of who wrote it. 

Sadly, the first thing that came to my mind were the letters containing Ricin sent to President Obama and New York City Mayor Bloomberg. It is an indictment on the time that we live in that I looked it up and down and shook it to see if there was any white powder inside.

After finally convincing myself that I couldn't be that high profile or that bad a person to warrant someone trying to poison me, I opened it. (You can chime in here about my character if you'd like.)

It was a letter to me and it said copies had been sent to the Town Manager and both political parties and in its blue computer printer writing, it attacked a town employee personally and said they needed to be first investigated and second terminated, maybe not in that order. 

It was signed "a concerned citizen who wishes to remain anonymous." 

While 99 percent of my correspondence for Berlin Patch comes via e-mail this letter is not unlike many of the e-mails I get to complain about this or that. But e-mails leaves a trace. If the e-mail is threatening you can find out even where it originated even if it was used just once. This letter would be much harder to trace.

But here's the good news for the writer. In my now 25 years as a journalist I have signed my name on every single article I have ever written. Some were extremely popular and others were not. But I took responsibility for what I wrote. And I continue to do that every day because, ideally, I see journalists as the last hope of our society. (Insert your Fox News, MSNBC, CNN joke here.)

So when I get a letter or an e-mail from "Anonymous" I do what just about every true journalist I know does, I delete the e-mail or I throw the letter out. This time it took about five minutes and then the letter I received got its proper send-off to my trashcan. 

Here is my advice. If you want to try to get someone fired...sign your name. If you want to have people take your seriously...sign your name. If you want to comment on a story on this website...sign your name. If you want me not to delete your e-mail or throw your letter in the trash.............sign your name.   


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