Here are a few of my career highlights to date.
As a journalist and author, my work has appeared in New York Times Sunday Magazine, Vanity Fair, U.S.News & World Report, Mother Jones, Utne Reader and numerous other publications and websites.
My original reporting has put me in front of the camera on such programs as Today Show, Good Morning America, Fox News (Bill O’Reilly), 48 Hours, Nightline, ABC/NBC/CBS Nightly News, and The Editors.
I've worked with Gore Vidal at his request on a number of projects including two of his pieces on domestic terrorism and Timothy McVeigh for Vanity Fair.
My investigative reporting on the Oklahoma City bombing resulted in my being called to testify before the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism in 1996.
I was a featured speaker at the 1997 national conference for Investigative Reporters and Editors.
I have won a fair number national, regional and statewide journalism awards.
Between 1998 and 2002 I was both on-air commentator and head scriptwriter for World Affairs Television including The Editors, Canada’s top rated political program hosted by Dateline NBC’s Keith Morrison.
In addition I have written two screenplays including one with actor Peter Coyote.
I've written a couple of books, Harvest Of Rage: Why Oklahoma City Is Only The Beginning and Perpetual Prisoner Machine Machine: How America Profits From Crime.
Some really great people have said some really nice things about my books. Here's a few examples.
“This is a startling book. It is an important book. It is one which Americans must read if they want to understand why there is increasing suicide and murder coming out of the farm country and how we might deal with the causes.”
— Howard Zinn
“It’s so important that Americans understand the anger that fuels militias and drives good citizens to suicidal and murderous acts of desperation. Joel Dyer illuminates the terrible anguish of men and women whose farms are threatened with foreclosure and, without excusing their behavior, explains it with compassion. But the greatest value of this book is in the forewarning it provides to destitute family farmers, about the hate-mongering opportunists who wait to prey on their shattered souls.”
— Mark Dowie, Former publisher and editor of Mother Jones
“The power elites who rule from Washington and Wall Street seem clueless that their actions produce reactions—that family farmers, inner-city youth, Vietnam and Gulf War veterans, downsized workers, and all the others who are being kicked out and stepped on by today’s powers that be eventually will kick back. Joel Dyer, a fine reporter and writer, puts flesh and blood to this harsh political reality in Harvest of Rage. It is a true and gripping story—and the rage is growing.”
— Jim Hightower, Former Texas Secretary of Agriculture
"This is one of the most important books about the state of this nation that has come along in years. The fact that we have become the new Soviet Union, the new South Africa, when it comes to incarcerating our own citizens is perhaps our most shameful accomplishment of the past decade. The brilliance of Joel Dyer's book is that he just doesn't state that sad and compelling fact, he gives us the why behind it—how politicians, lawyers, and corporations have profited by frightening the public into believing that we must lock up as many people as possible."
— Michael Moore, Filmmaker, "Roger & Me," "The Big One" and a bunch of others
”The Perpetual Prisoner Machine is a bold and deep-probing analysis of our criminal justice system. It raises serious questions about crime and punishment which reflect not just on our prisons, but on our profit-driven society.”
— Howard Zinn
When I wasn't writing books and articles you could have found me here:
Editor of Boulder Weekly, 1993-1997
Publisher of Fort Collins Weekly, 2002-2007
Publisher of New Ventures, Swift Communications, 2007-2009
Consultant for New Media, Swift Communications, 2009-2011
Editor of Boulder Weekly, 2011 to present
