 "Photo: courtesy of www.amazon.com")
He is a liar, a thief, a drug addict and one of the most significant, if unsung, figures in journalism of the past 20 years. Says so right on page 18.
Meet Jason Leopold. Absolute street, absolute Guido, Jason is no Bob Woodward; but then Bob Woodward wouldn't sell his soul in order to play a pivotal role in breaking the Enron accounting scandal. Jason did, and in doing so he exposed American's top corporate sharks to a weary and once trusting public - this while feeding his nose coke and feeding his editors a sack of lies big enough to ground Santa. His, admittedly, is not the prettiest story; but it's a damn fascinating read.
Perhaps the winds of the Enron story have died along with Kenny Lay, but Leopold's legacy as an off-beat and fiercely independent story teller continues to grow, now aided by the publication of News Junkie, a brutally honest first-person account of the multiple lives lived by this man during his 20-year rollercoaster career as an investigative reporter.
Jason's been around. He is a former Los Angeles bureau chief of Dow Jones Newswires and worked extensively for the Los Angeles Times. A frequent free-lance writer, his work has been showcased in such heavyweights as The Nation, The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times.
So how does a full-on con artist find himself behind the desk of so many full-time jobs for institutions that build their foundations on the very integrity and honor of their writers? You'll have to read the book and discover that answer for yourself, but know that the search is deliciously worth it.
More importantly, Leopold cuts away the hype and the glamour shrouding journalism, rewarding fearless readers with a piercing, behind-the-scenes exposé of the seedy underbelly world that is news reporting. Nervy editors waver and crack; politicians cut back-room deals to cut Jason down; the entire news and information industry finds itself vilified in a whirling torrent of bad ethics and badder men who stir the pot for their own, self-interested ends.
No punches get pulled. No gloss gets added. If you want Disneyfied endings, watch "Murphy Brown" re-runs. If you want brutal, electric honesty, the kind that doesn't bother wiping clean the knife before slashing again, give News Junkie a try.
That's not to say the book reads as an out and out indictment of Leopold's former enemies - it doesn't. Rather, the pages offer a poignant and deeply personal account of a man drowning in the flush of his own addiction to success, narcotics, and the cutthroat push for publishing glory. In a way, in every way, Leopold renders the writing life in general and journalism in specific in the same acid-black tones that often describe the dark, downward spiral into addiction itself.
Thinking about joining the ranks of your favorite reporters and leading the charge to change the world? Better read News Junkie first. You might be looking for a good treatment center instead.
Lastly, News Junkie is the story of transformation. Along the road to hell Leopold finds many an anecdote worth sharing, but the most powerful story he finds along his way back. In his own words, "Having spent the better part of 20 years running away from the truth about myself and exposing the truth about other people in my hard-hitting reports, I finally found the courage, thanks to my incredibly loving wife, Lisa, to break my own story."
Yeah, it's part love story. But one that strives to treat the personal costs involved - on all sides - rather than paint pretty for readers the usual romantic pabulum that passes for passion in American pose.
News Junkie is neither news nor junk. It's not flawless, but what it lacks in polish and precision it more than makes up fro in raw intensity and revelation. For aspiring expository writers it's a dead-center must; for those wanting an insider's look into the writing business, you'd better fire up Amazon.com; for wispy idealists who persist in believing in the virtue of All the President's Men, brew yourself up a quite cup of cocoa, grab a blanket and curl up on a choice sofa. Maybe your favorite "Murphy Brown" will air.
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