David Shaw, LA Times media critic

LOS ANGELES – David Shaw, the Los Angeles Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning media critic, died of complications from a brain tumour.

He was 62. Shaw’s hard-hitting critiques sometimes included his own newspaper.”David believed in journalistic independence, and he definitely practised it,” said John S Carroll, the Times’ editor.”As a critic, he was fearless in exposing the shortcomings of his own newspaper, his colleagues and his profession.”Shaw won the Pulitzer for criticism in 1991 for a four-part series on coverage of a case involving allegations that more than 60 children had been subjected to sexual abuse and satanic rituals at a preschool in Manhattan Beach, California.Ultimately no one was convicted of a crime.Shaw found that most of the reporting was reactive rather than investigative and discerned a failure to carefully examine how the prosecution’s case was developed and filed.During much of his 37 years at the Times, Shaw wrote about movie and restaurant criticism, best seller lists, editorial cartooning, political polling, coverage of abortion and the pope, and obituary writing.”He had real clout in the craft,” said Jim McNaughton, former president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and former executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer.”If the White House criticised your work, you looked for the political motive.If David Shaw criticised your work, you looked for ways to improve your work.”Shaw began writing for the Compton High School newspaper.After graduating, he enrolled at Pepperdine University but transferred after two years to UCLA, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in English in 1965.- Nampa-APShaw’s hard-hitting critiques sometimes included his own newspaper.”David believed in journalistic independence, and he definitely practised it,” said John S Carroll, the Times’ editor.”As a critic, he was fearless in exposing the shortcomings of his own newspaper, his colleagues and his profession.”Shaw won the Pulitzer for criticism in 1991 for a four-part series on coverage of a case involving allegations that more than 60 children had been subjected to sexual abuse and satanic rituals at a preschool in Manhattan Beach, California.Ultimately no one was convicted of a crime.Shaw found that most of the reporting was reactive rather than investigative and discerned a failure to carefully examine how the prosecution’s case was developed and filed.During much of his 37 years at the Times, Shaw wrote about movie and restaurant criticism, best seller lists, editorial cartooning, political polling, coverage of abortion and the pope, and obituary writing.”He had real clout in the craft,” said Jim McNaughton, former president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and former executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer.”If the White House criticised your work, you looked for the political motive.If David Shaw criticised your work, you looked for ways to improve your work.”Shaw began writing for the Compton High School newspaper.After graduating, he enrolled at Pepperdine University but transferred after two years to UCLA, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in English in 1965.- Nampa-AP

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