Phil Lerman

Philip Lerman is the author of the upcoming book Daditude, to be published in the spring of 2006, which chronicles his experience of the institution of fatherhood. He is also co-author with John Walsh of No Mercy, which reached the New York Times paperback bestseller list, as well as Walsh's latest book, Public Enemies. He also co-authored two other non-fiction books: Tracking Tomorrow's Trends, which analyzed hundreds of surveys to paint a portrait of the American psyche; and Where Have All The Flowers Gone?, which traced the Woodstock generation in the decades after Woodstock, and included definitive interviews with such characters as Abbie Hoffman and Ken Kesey.

Lerman began his career as city editor of The Ithaca Journal and assistant city editor of the Rochester Times-Union, two award-winning newspapers in upstate New York, before heading for Washington, D.C. in 1983 to join the upstart staff of an unknown, fledgling national daily called USA TODAY, where he became the newspaper's national editor. When the paper launched "USA TODAY: THE TELEVISON SHOW," he served as the show's head writer. After that show was terminated, Lerman went on to join America's Most Wanted, first as managing editor, and later as co-executive producer, supervising the show's producers and writers. He calls his 15 years with America's Most Wanted, one of the longest-running prime-time programs in TV history, "the most fascinating and rewarding thing I've ever done. There aren't many jobs in television that allow you to help people, to actually change people's lives for the better: to bring home missing children and help crime victims find closure and justice. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience."

For the 25th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1993, Lerman produced "Who Killed Martin Luther King?" a one-hour special on FOX. The program cast new doubts on the guilt of James Earl Ray.