New Book by the News Junkie coming soon..

I received an email from Jason about his upcoming book. He told me at lunch that he has been working on his next book. Here is a sneak peek of his next book called The Cover-Up:

The Cover-Up

In his memoir, News Junkie, Jason Leopold took readers inside the country’s top newsrooms for a behind-the-scenes look at the cutthroat world of investigative journalism, and described in startling detail the parallels that existed between his decade long bout with cocaine addiction and the drug-like high he experienced from breaking dozens of stories on the Enron scandal and the California energy crisis once he got sober.

In his new memoir The Cover-Up, Leopold continues his journey, moving into the world of online journalism where reporters and nameless, faceless, partisan political bloggers, and their loyal followings routinely butt heads over the sometimes shoddy reporting by mainstream journalists and the scandalous activities of the White House they’re assigned to cover.

In the rough and tumble world of Washington DC politics nothing is as it seems. While working at a scrappy online news magazine, Leopold, who has been called one of the country’s top twenty most annoying liberals in the United States by a right-wing website, befriends an ex-CIA agent and an official at the FBI who both steer him toward an important story his colleagues in mainstream media have all but ignored: the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and the flawed intelligence that paved the way toward United States’ initiation of the war in Iraq. At the same time, Leopold discovers a deep, dark secret that his father had concealed from his family for decades. The intertwined narratives force Leopold to question whether absolute truth exists in this day and age or if it too is going the same way as the printed newspaper.

His off-the-radar stories attract the attention of numerous insiders who tips Leopold off to several exclusive stories--one that eventually backfires, and will result in Leopold becoming the target of an orchestrated attack by the White House spin machine by Karl Rove.

As Leopold begins to cultivate sources who appear eager to tell the muckraking journalist the behind-the-scenes squabbles involving the most powerful people in politics--and the key White House figures responsible for the Valerie Plame leak--Leopold has a chance encounter with a family member he hasn’t spoken to in years who discloses that Leopold’s father isn’t the man he thinks he is.

Thus begins Leopold’s roller coaster ride into a world of deceit where no one is trustworthy--not family, friends, or inside-the-beltway sources. In sometimes comical, hard-boiled prose, The Cover-Up parallels the fact that some officials inside the Bush administration are no different than your average dysfunctional family, and how your average American family can sometimes be confused with traits like a group of politicians. Stuck in the middle of these two decidedly different dramas is Leopold, a man determined to uncover the truth of it all--even if it means alienating the people closest to him

The Cover-Up is also the story of finding truth in a culture where telling lies are derigueur. Leopold introduces readers to a colorful cast of characters; from his boss, a fashion-photographer turned-editor-turned-surfer who uses surfing analogies to explain the meaning of life, political bloggers who hide behind anonymous monikers such as “goblinmonger” to launch smear campaigns, lapdog reporters who are more concerned with their mortgages than with sticking their neck into the meat grinder, and an unforgettable array of primary sources who are anything but being honest to the sometimes gullible reporter. It also puts the reader into the new world where people are beginning to read and trust what they read on line and are turning their backs on traditional newspapers who are beholden to political ties and their advertisers.

The Cover-Up exposes how the media was complicit in shaping public perception toward the war, and asks what’s happened to the press’ role as skeptical “watchdog” over government power.

Finally, this tell-all provides new details about the circumstances behind the CIA leak directly from the officials involved, including Joe and Valerie Wilson, and clearly exhibits through dogged reporting and honest writing that truth is indeed, stranger than fiction.

Details of his book release will be soon. So stay tuned. I look forward to buy his latest. And thank you Jason for sharing with me your next book. Finally, thank you for all you do in the name of journalism. Cheers!