When I walked in the Kentucky Book Fair, I could see that the author in the booth next to mine had to be a television anchor.
Handsome, perfect hair, perfect clothes with a woman who looked like a fashion model (I later found it was his wife) assisting him.
Then I saw his book. On the bottom of the front cover was his picture in a mug shot.
As the legendary attorney Frank Haddad said, "no one looks good in a mug shot."
John Boel didn't either. The Louisville news anchor who won seventy Emmy awards had a problem.
A drinking problem. One that would result in a couple of drunk driving arrests, a trip to re-hab, being fired and taking the bus (his driver license was suspended) to a humiliating trip to the unemployment office.
John tells his story in his new book, On the News. In the News.
John fell into the a wide, but often unnoticed category, of being a functioning alcoholic. He racked up his Emmy awards and lived a high profile life. He participated in physically challenging ironman races and marathons. He has a beautiful wife and two daughters.
John looked to the world like the perfect American success story.
The underlying secret was alcohol was undermining his life and ultimately destroyed his career.
American's like to stomp on people when they are down.
A perusal of the blogs in Louisville shows that a lot of stomping took place on John Boel.
Watching a public figure do something stupid is big news. Just ask Lindsay Lohan or Anthony Weiner.
Boel described the depths of his depression, which was snapped by going to rehab and then finding a twelve step group. He got his one year chip for sobriety and hopes that the book will inspire others.
At the same book fair, the best selling book was Al Smith's autobiography Wordsmith.
Al is one of the most influential living Kentuckians and highly acclaimed journalist.
He is also a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for nearly fifty years.
Like Boel, Al lost his job because of his drinking. Also like Boel, he found his way into a twelve step group and started turning his life around.
At age 84, Smith continues to have a passion for journalism and news. Boel obviously has that passion too. I've never seen his work but it was evident in our long conversation about stories he covered that journalism was not a job, it was a calling.
A calling that was snapped short by Boel's second arrest for drunk driving.
You don't rack up seventy Emmy awards without a strong work ethic and an innovative approach to the news. Although part of Boel's book is focused on his crash, fall and recovery, a fascinating part is how his perspective on news gathering has changed by his own journey through the tabloids.
As Tom Wolfe said in The Bonfires of the Vanities, "a liberal is a conservative who has been arrested."
Boel did a lot of undercover reports, such as posing as Santa Claus to see how people react an do undercover films of men soliciting sex in public parts.
He ruminates on how lives were altered, changed and destroyed when the secret acts of non-public figures were broadcast on the evening news.
Boel is headed down the road to recovery. It takes the strength of an Ironman but it's a journey that is taken one day at a time. Unlike a distance race, there is never a finish line.
I hope Boel gets another chance to be a broadcast journalist. I've never watched him on air but from our conversation and from the book, (and the seventy Emmy awards) he must have been a good one and I suspect he would be a better one the second time around.
Being a public figure, locked away in the cocoon of broadcast media, can isolate a person. Being an Ironman participant is an incredible individual achievement but not an activity that involves bonding with people struggling to make it through the day.
Falling from grace, riding the bus, going to the unemployment office and worrying about how to keep food on the table is something that a lot of Americans have done. Boel had to do it and see that life first hand.
Boel's trip through his individual hell has given him empathy with "the other side" of America.
If we could get more journalists to connect to that side of America, we might cry out for a new screening application for aspiring journalists.
Ask them to include a picture of their mug shot with the application.
Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is the bestselling author of the book Wealth Without Wall Street: McNay, who lives in Richmond Kentucky, an award-winning financial columnist and Huffington Post Contributor. You can learn more about him at www.donmcnay.com
He is the Chairman of the Board for the McNay Settlement Group (www.mcnay.com) which provides structured settlement consulting for injury victims, lottery winners, and the families of special needs children.
McNay founded Kentucky Guardianship Administrators LLC, which assists attorneys in as conservators and setting up guardianship's. It is nationally recognized as an administrator of Qualified Settlement (468b) funds.