• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

Shaw

David Shaw, a UCLA graduate and Pulitzer Prize winner who spent 37 years at the Los Angeles Times as a media critic, died on August 2. He was 62.

Shaw died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center of complications from a brain tumor that was discovered in May.

During his career, Shaw authored five books and wrote critical examinations of trends and issues in the media, as well as of his other two interests, food and wine.

Shaw helped pioneer the relatively untested field of media criticism, not even sparing his own newspaper when he dissected and critiqued the field of journalism.

“David believed in journalistic independence, and he definitely practiced it,” said John Carroll, editor of the Los Angeles Times. “As a critic, he was fearless in exposing the shortcomings of his own newspaper, his colleagues and his profession.”

Shaw was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1991 for his hard-hitting examination of the McMartin molestation case.

The McMartin case, which went on for seven years, was one of the first multi-victim, multi-offender child-abuse cases. Children and parents alleged that the children had suffered sexual abuse and experienced satanic rituals while attending the Manhattan Beach McMartin Preschool.

Shaw wrote a four-part series that critiqued and examined the ways the media covered the McMartin case, which had gained national attention due to the intense nature of the allegations of the crime.

Though more than 360 children were diagnosed as being abused, analysts noted there was a lack of reliable physical evidence, and interviewers used suggestive interrogations to lead children in the direction they wanted them to go.

Shaw’s series on the case began the day after the verdict came in January 1990, where ultimately no one was convicted of a crime.

Among other findings, Shaw concluded that most of the reporting during the case was not reflective of the actual findings of the case, but was reactive to the severity of the allegations.

Since 2002, Shaw wrote for the Los Angeles Times’ weekly Food section. He also continued to write about the media for a column in the Sunday Calendar.

Shaw was also a contributor to national publications like Gentleman’s Quarterly, Washington Monthly, Esquire, Cigar Aficionado, Food & Wine, Washingtonian, New York, Bon Appetit, TV Guide, Rolling Stone and Conde Nast Traveler.

His books include “The Pleasure Police: How Bluenose Busybodies and Lily-Livered Alarmists Are Taking All the Fun Out of Life,” “Press Watch,” and “Journalism Today: A Changing Press for a Changing America.”

Shaw, who was born on Jan. 4, 1943 in Dayton, Ohio, moved to Southern California when he was 3.

By 1953, Shaw had decided that he wanted to become a journalist. He began his career writing for the Compton High School newspaper.

After graduating, he attended Pepperdine University for two years. He then transferred to UCLA, where he wrote for the Daily Bruin. He earned his bachelor’s in English from UCLA in 1965.

Shaw began reporting for the Huntington Park Signal while at UCLA, and began writing for the Long Beach Independent three years later .

After gaining recognition for his work at the Independent, Shaw joined the Los Angeles Times, where he wrote about various topics such as gambling, court reform and teenage drug use for his first six years.

Then, in 1974, Shaw was assigned a new, more critical task of covering the media, including the publications of his own newspaper and colleagues.

Throughout his career, Shaw took in criticism from other writers for his coverage of the media and publications, but wasn’t bothered when colleagues and other reporters approached him, Bill Boyarsky, a retired city editor, columnist and political reporter for the Los Angeles Times, told the publication.

Shaw later went on to write about wine and fine dining for the Times, two of the few extravagances in his life.

Throughout his career, Shaw was widely recognized for his journalism. In addition to the Pulitzer, he also received the Lowell Mellet Award for best media criticism in 1982 and the Society of Professional Journalists award for best non-deadline reporting in 1999.

He received other top awards and honors from the Greater Los Angeles Press Club, California State Bar Association, American Bar Association, PEN and the American Political Science Association.

Shaw is survived by his third wife, Lucy Stille; their son, Lucas; five stepchildren and his sister, Barbara Holme.

With reports from Bruin wire services.