Don't Tell Anyone I Told You, But....

-- Alissa Griffith ag180505@ohio.edu

In high school, I learned most rumors begin with seven simple words: Don’t tell anyone I told you, but [insert juicy piece of gossip].

I’m always wary of that opener. However, I normally cared more about this new piece of information than about the motive behind the secret-teller. So, I would take the information, determine its relevancy/probability of truth and decide whether or not to pass it on – of course, I would never reveal the person who told me.

People would ask me why I wouldn’t expose my sources and the answer was simple: “because she’ll find out and she’ll never tell me anything else”. I wanted people to be able to trust me, but more than that, I wanted to know everything.

However, I learned a major lesson back then. Sometimes people don’t want their names revealed because they don’t want to ruin a friendship/career/relationship etc. Other times, it’s because that person is being untruthful. The first instance I can respect, the second instance is what I look out for. As a younger person, I didn’t mind an “off the record” or “you didn’t hear this from me”; however, as a journalist, a source must have a compelling reason for me to promise him/her confidentiality.

It’s a noble thing to go to jail on principle. But, if I’m sitting in jail every time I get a scoop, then I need to rethink my methods and the sources of my information. If I am taking the name of a source to my grave, then it needs to be because of information that I couldn’t get anywhere else -- not because I’m too lazy to find someone to talk on the record.

The truth is: I don’t want to go to jail for anybody.

Just don’t tell anyone I told you…

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