News Junkie

"News Junkie" isn't just a memoir about addiction, though it captures that experience masterfully and compassionately. It examines, through the author's harrowing personal story, the line between passion and obsession, drive and compulsion. Any reader who has ever become attached to something to the point of obsession (that is, probably, every reader) will identify, regardless of whether they know what cocaine feels like. "News Junkie" is also a book about secrets, and Jason Leopold delivers those secrets--even his most carefully guarded ones--with astonishingly candid grace. This book is a page-turner in the most accomplished sense. There are no cheap tricks or manufactured plot twists here; the suspense is generated by Leopold's empathy and honesty, his ability to bring readers straight into the heart of his story. This is a magnificent book.

You don't have to read the paper or even watch the news to appreciate this well written book. Sure, it centers around a fantastic journalistic story. It is also a story of addiction/sobriety, overcoming child abuse and a love story. It is a dark and gritty book that is hard to put down.

Leopold is a tough guy to like. He is a drug addict, a thief, and incredibly self-loathing. He is also a chronic complainer, believing that life has dealt him a terrible hand. Even when things in his life are going well, he manages to sabotage everything around him, almost losing his wife and career. Leopold's instability and ongoing war with himself make for incredibly entertaining stories.

I liked News Junkie a lot. The writing style give the reader a sense of time and place. You feel as if you are in the newsroom with Leopold. Jason Leopold is complex and a contradition. You like him and root for him, yet cringe at some of his actions. You wish the unfinished chapters of his life will bring happiness.

This is a scary book. Jason Leopold was not a nice guy. He was a creep who would screw over anyone for drugs first, then news "scoops" later. This is a story of a guy whose misdirected intelligence and passion totally screw him up for a number of years. Finally, he starts to get on a path where he's doing some good, but he's still stuck with some very nasty habits that get him in trouble and keep him sabotaging himself, in spite of becoming a serial award winning reporter. As a writer I found Jason's book very inspiring. Not the nasty stuff-- but Jason describes the creative and energetic ways he went after stories. I've written for national magazines, with my own share of cover stories, and I've done some investigative leg and phone work. But Jason's descriptions of his efforts have already inspired me to go the extra distance to dig further into articles. The first article I applied this to rose to the top five articles of the month on my website, where we've published at least 400 articles so far this month. Jason writes about how he was tough on his reporters, as an editor. insisting that they go out on the street, covering their beat, not waiting for news to come to them. That's inspired me to take a similar approach in my own writing. If you're a reporter, this book is different than any I've seen. It's wild and wooly and while a bit apologetic, brutally honest. Recently, post the writing of this book, Jason reported that Karl Rove was about to be indicted by Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor investigating the Plame CIA case. It didn't happen. Rove was never indicted. Now you could just write Jason off as an incompetent. But you could also wonder whether Rove got to Fitzgerald, or, that someone fed Jason bad info that was designed to set him up, because he was getting too close to the truth. I don't know what the answer is. Frankly, having published his report, I was embarassed by the article being wrong. When I got the word, I headlined the article. It didn't feel very good. But maybe that's what was supposed to happen-- what was intended by the people who set him up. I'm not apologizing for him. But I'm keeping my mind open to the possibility that the people who brought us the threat of WMDs in Iraq, who pulled one over on Colin Powell, the majority of the senate and most of the US could have also pulled one over on this news junkie. I see Jason as a man who can make a difference. I'm glad he's working for the progressive cause now. The right wing fights very, very dirty. They lie, cheat, and since they run the mainstream media, they propagandize, cover up and gloss over news that should be covered that isn't. We need more Jason Leopolds who are willing to do what it takes to dig up the truth. And we should expect that when he uses his enormous cojones to take on incredibly powerful, influential and wealthy players, he will occasionally be set up,occasionally stabbed in the back by editors, occasionally made to lo