Rather Dumb: A Top Tabloid Reporter Tells CBS How to Do News

by Mike Walker

Using Rather as a touchstone, Mike Walker rips into the arrogance and presumption of the news media-the elitist, agenda-driven mentality that allows its journalists and editors to ignore basic rules of journalism. Walker uses this short, blisteringly humorous book to personally kick Rather in the shins and also, more importantly, explain how real news is properly gathered and vetted, how it's properly written and reported, and why some journalists and editors think they're above such things. For years the mainstream media has stared down its collective nose at publications like the National Enquirer , but as Walker shows in scorching detail and irreverent humor, it is the gatekeepers and news elitists who need a trip to the woodshed, starting with Dan Rather.

198 pages, Hardcover

First published February 27, 2005

About the author

During the O.J. Simpson “Trial of the Century,” Walker wrote the headline-making New York Times #1 Best Seller, "Nicole Brown Simpson: Private Diary of a Life Interrupted," with Faye Resnick. Just months later, his book "Private Diary of an OJ Juror," with Michael Knox, rocketed to #5 on the NYT list.

That created a world record: He’s the only reporter known to have written two best-selling books on the same major story. He’s written several non-fiction books, and the novel, “Malicious Intent.”

Walker delighted millions during a record-breaking 16-year stint as a regular with shock jock Howard Stern, who calls Walker "the Hemingway of gossip." Stern featured him every Friday on his top-rated show, conducting the famed "Mike Walker Game."

Dubbed "The King of Gossip" by Publisher’s Weekly, Walker’s lectured at such distinguished journalism schools as the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University. And he scored the prestigious invitation to become a Fellow of Ireland’s legendary Trinity College, Dublin.

"I'm an historian," Walker explains, "and I’d love to teach a course in what drives mankind’s predilection for gossip. How’s ‘Professor of Whisperology’ sound?”