1-800-Are You Sure You REALLY Saw Corruption?

By Alicia Dorr in News on May 9, 2006 4:08PM

As you know, last week the Inspector General, who we will henceforth be referred to as Inspector Gadget due both to the close approximation of some of the letters and our affable immaturity, set up a hotline so people can call in when they suspect city corruption. Or, you know, when they just feel like talking. Oh, hell, they’ll make something up if they have to—they just want to be loved!

Anyway, Inspector Gadget’s move was actually a pleasant surprise and at least a step in the right direction. That is, until people proved how silly they really can be. The same wizards who are obviously equipped to accurately report corruption in public offices—the “layman”, if you will—read their handy-dandy Sun-Times’ report on the new line. And by “read” we mean they “read the headline,” a little turn of phrase on the line, 1-800-TURN-EM-IN, and started calling it, rather than the real line.

So many people were confused, it seemed, that poor Inspector Gadget had to call to see if that number was available. Now the city has to phone lines to call for corruption, but we’re pretty sure we know which one everyone will be calling, and it ain’t gonna be the very dry 1-800-IG-TIPLINE. We like a little pizzazz when we’re changing the course of our city government with the tap of a few cell phone keys, dammit!

Either way, the line(s) have already received 150 calls on top of the 70 from the Internet site. We really, really want to know what those calls are about, by the way, for more reasons than one.