He is the ex-reporter for Salon and an LAT community paper—and former president of the local SPJ chapter—whose piece about the energy crisis was retracted. His book Off the Record, about his journalistic career and rough family life, was dropped by publisher Rowman & Littlefield over a complaint about accuracy, Howard Kurtz reports in the Washington Post. At Romenesko, Leopold emails that Kurtz was tough on him because of a brief swipe in the book.