Enough to Be Dangerous: One Agent's Life in TV News and Rock & Roll

As a child in racially turbulent Detroit, Mort Meisner witnessed an attack on a black boy as white parents shouted the n-word and threw rocks to protest bussing to integrate his elementary school in 1960. A short time later, seven-year-old Mort stood helpless and crying as white teens yelled slurs at his Jewish mother while attacking her. This - and the vicious beatings that his father inflicted on Mort, his brother, and his mother inside their run-down home - instilled in him a deep disdain for hatred, violence, and discrimination. Then, a passion for sports and storytelling inspired Mort to study broadcast journalism at the University of Detroit by day, while working as a rock 'n roll promoter for famous musicians by night. The wild hedonism of the 1970s rock scene, along with the tragic and troubling chaos of his childhood, laid a unique and bold foundation to launch Mort's career as a renegade for positive change in the TV news industry. Enough to Be Dangerous chronicles Mort's against-the-odds success, and his courageous quest to call out sexism and racism in newsrooms in St. Louis, Chicago, and Detroit throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In this hard-hitting memoir, Mort exposes rampant racism amongst TV news managers who dubbed black male reporters as "garbagemen" and assigned them the worst stories of the day. Mort fought to change this, but at times realized he was fighting an impossible battle against a racist system, even when he took his case to the EEOC. Mort also spoke up and out against degrading treatment of female reporters and anchors. And he was never afraid to take his complaints to the leaders of America's major media networks. With stories that will make you laugh, cry, and cringe, Mort bares his soul on the pages of Enough to Be Dangerous, by sharing his struggles with cocaine addiction as an attempt to soothe wounds inflicted by his parents' abuse and the wrongs of the world. He also shares poignant moments about his family, and revelations about the power to heal. Now a leading broadcast news talent agent for journalists across America, Mort Meisner invites you to dive into his timely insights and experiences that echoes today's headlines about journalism, racism, and sexism. The book balances the somber stories with scenes that titillate with sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll. When you read Enough to Be Dangerous, you'll get an unforgettable peek into a life fully lived and a legacy that's leaving a powerful imprint on TV news and people everywhere.



About the Author
Meisner, Mort: - Mort Meisner is a news industry expert who delivers sharp, insightful commentary about the state of journalism and the world. As founder of Mort Meisner Associates, he is a highly sought-after speaker and commentator, who draws from three decades of experience working in big-city newsrooms across America-and cultivating many talented reporters and anchors who deliver the news today. He achieved against-the-odds success in powerful leadership positions in broadcast news after surviving physical abuse from his father, and recovering from a cocaine habit. Now he applies all of the above as a top broadcast news talent agent. Mort's career began in music, when he promoted some of the biggest names in rock music as a journalism major at the University of Detroit. From there, he embarked on his journalism career that took him to major network stations in Detroit, Chicago, and St. Louis. He Emmy Award-winning teams and made it his personal mission to change a culture of racism and sexism in newsrooms. Now at the helm of Mort Meisner Associates, he places some of the most outstanding on-air talent in the industry. Mort is a devoted family man who enjoys baseball, Bruce Springsteen concerts, and continuing to play an influential role as a speaker and commentator.Ruopp, Stephanie: - Steph Ruopp is a graduate of the University of Michigan and a writer who can happily say that she has dipped her toes, and sometimes her entire foot, into blogging, fiction, creative non-fiction, copywriting, screenwriting, and hieroglyphics projects. (The hieroglyphics part is not true, thus proving that she does, in fact, write fiction.) Writing has been the one consistent thread in her ever wavering life. She might even say that it's the thread that's held it all together, though that may well be fiction too. Whatever the case, she's available for writing projects. You can reach her at stephruopp@wordstringer.org.Atkins, Elizabeth: - Elizabeth is a best-selling author, actress, Emmy Award-nominated TV host, and an award-winning journalist who uses a multimedia platform to inspire people to unlock their infinite potential and live with passion, prosperity, health, and happiness. Her spiritual memoir, God's Answer is Know: Lessons from a Spiritual Life, provides the launchpad for her global intuitive teachings. Elizabeth's desire to empower others springs from a trailblazing matrix of colorblind love and courage from her mother, an African American and Italian judge, and her father, a former Roman Catholic priest who was English, French Canadian, and Cherokee. They taught her to challenge the status quo by writing innovative ideas to edu-tain people. With a master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree in English Literature from the University of Michigan, Elizabeth has written over 20 books, including novels White Chocolate, Dark Secret and Twilight (with Billy Dee Williams). Elizabeth has ghostwritten books for executives, prominent government and civic leaders, physicians, a surgeon, an intuitive medium, a family that triumphed on NBC's The Biggest Loser, an insurance agent, and a quadriplegic man who lived his dream to become a record company CEO. Her novellas about empowering women to overcome abuse and identity crises were published in My Blue Suede Shoes: An Anthology and Other People's Skin: An Anthology. Elizabeth runs Two Sisters Writing and Publishing with her sister, the young adult author Catherine M. Greenspan. Together they have published over twenty books, including an annual anthology of short stories by international writers who won the Two Sisters' ongoing short story writing contests. Elizabeth is a health and fitness enthusiast whose 100-pound weight loss was featured on Oprah. Elizabeth co-hosts a weekly television show, MI Healthy Mind, which promotes wellness by shattering stigmas around taboo topics such as mental illness, addiction and abuse. She is a popular writing coach whose PowerJournalTM program teaches people to enrich their lives with journal-writing. She has taught writing at Wayne State University, Oakland University, Wayne County Community College District, and at national conferences. As a speaker who promotes human harmony, Elizabeth was previously represented by the American Program Bureau. She rouses ovations by reciting her autobiographical poem, White Chocolate, and has spoken at Columbia University, the University of Michigan, GM's World Diversity Day, Gannett, 100 Black Men, the NAACP, and many other venues. As an actress, Elizabeth plays a major role in the feature-length film Anything Is Possible, nominated for Best Foreign Film by the Nollywood and African Film Critics Association. She composed an original screenplay, Redemption, a gritty drama about a Detroit gangster and a writer. And Elizabeth plays a 1950s journalist in the international shipwreck drama, Are The Passengers Saved? Elizabeth has been a guest on Oprah, Montel, NPR, Good Morning America Sunday, The CBS Evening News, and many national TV shows. After writing her master's thesis about mixed-race Americans, her work appeared in The New York Times, The San Diego Tribune, Essence, Ebony, and many publications. Her Detroit News articles on race were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and she wrote a biography for the Presidential Medal of Freedom tribute for Rosa Parks. Elizabeth runs, cycles, lifts weights, does yoga, journals and meditates to cultivate a joyous and peaceful mind, body and spirit.