leopold began his career in 1992, writing obituaries for "the reporter dispatch" newspaper in white plains, new york. he became the crime and courts reporter for the "whittier daily news" in 1997 and then moved to the city news service where he covered court trials. leopold next worked as a city editor and reporter for the "los angeles times". he then worked for dow jones newswires as its los angeles bureau chief. according to a "washington post" report, the press release for leopold's book "off the record" (published later as "news junkie") stated that "he says he was fired by the los angeles times 'for threatening to rip a reporter's head off'". leopold says he quit dow jones newswires in a dispute over his beat, but later learned the news service was planning to fire him because of a correction to one of his enron stories: "seems i got all of the facts wrong". leopold was later the us correspondent for 95bfm in auckland, new zealand.