The latest book from
Don Dahler
The critically acclaimed journalist and author of FEARLESS, A TIGHT LIE, WATER HAZARD, and DO A LITTLE WRONG authored the book that had to be written. SOUVENIRS is a fascinating look at one former network correspondent’s adventures. Don Dahler has a knack for making us feel like we’re alongside for a ride throughout his career, across the globe. He effortlessly weaves a word picture in such an entertaining way. There are many surprises, some laughs, and probably a few tears.
“Correspondent,” by the way, is just a fancy name for television reporters who’ve made it to the national stage. Kind of how a chef is really just a talented cook whose name is now on the menu. There are plenty of people working for your local news who are better reporters than many network correspondents, myself included. Those journalists either prefer working in local news, don’t have as good an agent, or simply don’t have the desired look, regional accent, or alma mater. Being elevated to the rarified air of a news network is about as subjective a process as can be. Think Jeopardy! meets the Miss America pageant meets The Hunger Games: push the button at the right moment, have all the correct answers, and Don Dahler look exactly like who the executives have in mind while also managing to survive the unbelievably cutthroat competition.
Surviving the unbelievably cutthroat competition
For a while, I was that guy. Nice suit. Tasteful tie. Not a hair out of place. An anchorman in the nation’s largest television market, earnestly talking to viewers about the terrible things people do to each other, or how the financial markets are affecting their retirement plans, or how bad the coming storm will be, as I toss in a quip to the friendly neighborhood weatherman. And for a while I was also that other guy you see on television: the one reporting from all over the country and the world about the bigger picture, the criminal trials, the crippling floods, the endless wars, as a correspondent for Fox News, CNBC, ABC News, and, lastly, CBS News.
An anchorman in the nation’s largest television market.
For a television journalist, it’s the equivalent of hitting the career Powerball lottery. But there are strings attached. So many strings. The fact that I was among those very few elevated to that position, for as long as I was able to hang on to it, is absolutely ridiculous. I ran away from an abusive father while still in high school. By working as a busboy, waiter, auto mechanic, and country-western DJ—one who bluffed his way into the job without knowing dick about country music—I managed to scrape together enough money each month to pay rent and car expenses. I lived on restaurant leftovers and cheese sandwiches. My prospects were grim. Often the thought “Is this all there is?” crept into my mind, and I knew I couldn’t bear such a future.
Career Powerball lottery, with strings attached
About The Author.
Don Dahler has been a fixture on network newscasts for the past thirty years. The recipient of almost every major award in broadcast journalism, including two national Emmy Awards, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Peabody Award, and an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award, Don is perhaps best known for being the first national correspondent to report live from the scene of the World Trade Center attacks, from which he calmly relayed his observations, mere blocks away from the unfolding devastation, to a shocked world.
He has covered every major recent news story, from the Columbine school shooting to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre; from the 2000 presidential election recount to the fall of Africa’s last colony; from Michael Jackson’s trial to the Oklahoma City bombing. He reported from countless hurricanes and blizzards and was one of the first journalists to slip into northern Iraq under cover of darkness to find out if the Kurds would fight on the side of America against Saddam Hussein.
The latest book from
Don Dahler
The critically acclaimed journalist and author of FEARLESS, A TIGHT LIE, WATER HAZARD, and DO A LITTLE WRONG authored the book that had to be written. SOUVENIRS is a fascinating look at one former network correspondent’s adventures. Don Dahler has a knack for making us feel like we’re alongside for a ride throughout his career, across the globe. He effortlessly weaves a word picture in such an entertaining way. There are many surprises, some laughs, and probably a few tears.
“Correspondent,” by the way, is just a fancy name for television reporters who’ve made it to the national stage. Kind of how a chef is really just a talented cook whose name is now on the menu. There are plenty of people working for your local news who are better reporters than many network correspondents, myself included. Those journalists either prefer working in local news, don’t have as good an agent, or simply don’t have the desired look, regional accent, or alma mater. Being elevated to the rarified air of a news network is about as subjective a process as can be. Think Jeopardy! meets the Miss America pageant meets The Hunger Games: push the button at the right moment, have all the correct answers, and 1 0 Don Dahler look exactly like who the executives have in mind while also managing to survive the unbelievably cutthroat competition.
Surviving the unbelievably cutthroat competition
For a while, I was that guy. Nice suit. Tasteful tie. Not a hair out of place. An anchorman in the nation’s largest television market, earnestly talking to viewers about the terrible things people do to each other, or how the financial markets are affecting their retirement plans, or how bad the coming storm will be, as I toss in a quip to the friendly neighborhood weatherman. And for a while I was also that other guy you see on television: the one reporting from all over the country and the world about the bigger picture, the criminal trials, the crippling floods, the endless wars, as a correspondent for Fox News, CNBC, ABC News, and, lastly, CBS News.
An anchorman in the nation’s largest television market.
For a television journalist, it’s the equivalent of hitting the career Powerball lottery. But there are strings attached. So many strings. The fact that I was among those very few elevated to that position, for as long as I was able to hang on to it, is absolutely ridiculous. I ran away from an abusive father while still in high school. By working as a busboy, waiter, auto mechanic, and country-western DJ—one who bluffed his way into the job without knowing dick about country music—I managed to scrape together enough money each month to pay rent and car expenses. I lived on restaurant leftovers and cheese sandwiches. My prospects were grim. Often the thought “Is this all there is?” crept into my mind, and I knew I couldn’t bear such a future.
Career Powerball lottery, with strings attached
About The Author.
Don Dahler has been a fixture on network newscasts for the past thirty years. The recipient of almost every major award in broadcast journalism, including two national Emmy Awards, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Peabody Award, and an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award, Don is perhaps best known for being the first national correspondent to report live from the scene of the World Trade Center attacks, from which he calmly relayed his observations, mere blocks away from the unfolding devastation, to a shocked world.
He has covered every major recent news story, from the Columbine school shooting to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre; from the 2000 presidential election recount to the fall of Africa’s last colony; from Michael Jackson’s trial to the Oklahoma City bombing. He reported from countless hurricanes and blizzards and was one of the first journalists to slip into northern Iraq under cover of darkness to find out if the Kurds would fight on the side of America against Saddam Hussein.
With undergraduate degrees in film and history, the Colorado native started his broadcasting career in local news in Texas and North Carolina before branching into documentary production. He lived in southern Africa while working on wildlife films with famed Anglia/National Geographic filmmakers Jen and Des Bartlett, and traveled to over 120 countries. He was among the first team of Westerners in decades to reach nomadic peoples in the Tian Shan mountain range in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. He lived in Cairo and Calcutta for months while working on documentaries about the people of those great cities. He has reported for CNBC, ABC-News, and CBS-News, and was the evening news anchor for CBS’s flagship station for many years.
The son of an Air Force colonel, Don grew up on military bases across the country, from San Antonio, to Colorado Springs, to Klamath Falls, Oregon, to Fairborn, Ohio, to Virginia Beach. While developing his journalism career the wanderings continued: Dallas, Charlotte, Richmond, Los Angeles, and New York.
Don has been an eyewitness to wars in Southwest Africa, Kosovo, Israel/Palestinian territories, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He was among the first war correspondents to venture into Afghanistan after 9/11 and traveled to numerous frontlines with the Afghans fighting against the Taliban. Don was then embedded multiple times with American troops and Marines during key engagements in Iraq. He stays in contact with some of those soldiers to this day.
Author Don Dahler
Books.
In 2009, St. Martin’s Press published Don’s first novel to critical acclaim, the sports-themed mystery A TIGHT LIE, which was followed by WATER HAZARD and DO A LITTLE WRONG. He went on to write FEARLESS, the biography of America’s first female aviator, Harriet Quimby. His memoir, SOUVENIRS FROM AN ABSURD LIFE, will be published in February, 2025, by Post Hill Press.
Don Dahler lives in New Jersey with his wife, Katie, two children, Callie and Jack, and a menagerie of dogs and cats. When not writing, he can be found on a golf course, tennis court, or restoring old houses.
For literary and film/television queries contact Claudia Cross, Folio Literary Management.