Most of the time, let's be frank, crowd-sourcing in journalism is a dismal failure, even in though the internet would seem to be made for it. An appeal for help goes out to readers, nothing useful comes in, because nobody cares, and the lazy journalist (that's me) moves on as quickly as possible to the next story, hoping nobody noticed. And then there's the case of Matthew Winkler, Bloomberg's tyrannical news chief.

So many editors and reporters have suffered his management for so long; as a private company controlled by a founder now busy with other matters, the financial information service can more easily hush up its embarrassments; so there is a huge reservoir of bitterness among current and former employees just waiting to relieve itself in the form of tips.

Since we ran audio of one classic Winkler tirade — "The enemy is the human" — the emails have flooded in. "Your stories about Winkler are only scratching the surface; the rant on the tape you have is, on a 1-10 scale of Winkler rants, about a 2," writes one informant. Another: "You are dead on about Winkler. Keep it going." So we will.

What do people know about a confrontation between the irascible Bloomberg news boss and an editor on the bond team, in the mid-1990s? In particular, after the company settled, what constraints did the group's top management put on Winkler's behavior around journalists, and how long did he have to adhere to them? We know how paranoid Bloomberg employees can be; all tips should be over public networks, and will be taken in confidence. Email nick@gawker.com.