Journalists have a tendency to be cynical. However, I do not consider myself to be a cynical person. When people tell me something, I believe them. However, events of the last few days have led me to believe that there is a reason journalists have to be cynical.

This really is a lesson the veterans at The Daily Eastern News have been trying to teach me all this semester. When I would ask how I can do better work, they tell me to dig deeper.

However, when contacts flat-out lie to you, how can you dig deeper and find out the real story?

I need to backtrack at this point and give a little summary of what led me to this realization.

I wrote a column before Thanksgiving break to be published last Friday that essentially asked why people were so skeptical about the completion of campus projects, especially the library. The second part of my column praised those involved for getting the project done by the promised date. I was inspired with this, my first column idea, and I could not wait to run it last Friday and prove all those skeptics wrong.

Next thing I know, it’s Thursday, and we find out the library will not be done on time, and guess who has to rewrite her column?

On a side note, we were not told about this development by any university official. We were told by someone who was ousted from his semester break job without enough notice to find another one.

When was a university official going to announce this to the public? Were they just going to leave the doors locked on Jan. 7 when we thought we would be able to enter the library for the first time in 2 1/2 years?

To my knowledge, once the library got started, it has been on schedule the entire time it has been under construction. In fact, when I wrote a story updating the construction process for the Oct. 16 issue of the DEN, I was told by one of my sources that some aspects of the project were even ahead of schedule.

Were they lying to me?

I really have a hard time believing that some sort of delay can just “pop up” one month before the library is supposed to open its doors. With a project this big, I would think those in charge would have some indication sooner than one month before the promised opening.

Furthermore, the story that ran in the DEN on Friday said administrators were not sure if opening the library Jan. 7 was doable. Again, one month before its supposed to be completed, that’s something that should be certain, right?

Maybe that is just my naive, non-cynical personality that leads me to believe that a project that big would be coordinated in that way.

Rumor has it this delay was known at the time I was writing my story assuring students the library would be open when we return from semester break.

When I have contacts that I talk to on a regular basis e-mail me and tell me I did a good job on a story and then turn around and lie to me about another story, I just really do not know what to think.

Now, I realize we have not gotten anyone to say on the record or off that they lied about the issue.

What I would really like is for those concerned to tell me the truth.

I work at this paper to report the truth, and I do not appreciate that on a particular occasion I may not have done so.

When The Daily Eastern News reported an inaccurate story concerning the possible closing of Thomas Dining Center earlier this fall, we did what we needed to do to correct the problem. We admitted the mistake and took the heat for it.

A letter to the editor that ran following this incident quoted the quote that runs in our masthead and is the mission of the paper: “Tell the truth and don’t be afraid.”

That quote shouldn’t just apply to The Daily Eastern News or any other newspaper. It should apply to everybody.

I think the sources who have been giving us information need to “tell the truth and don’t be afraid.”

Admit the mistake and take the heat for it.