David Shaw

Latecomers to the work of Los Angeles Times media critic David Shaw, who died yesterday, may know him for little more than an ill-considered screed against bloggers that he wrote this past spring.

Among media critics, though, Shaw was a legend – the only one of us, to the best of my knowledge, ever to win a Pulitzer Prize. That’s sort of like a second baseman winning the home-run title.

Shaw was not as celebrated as he should have been because he worked well outside the East Coast media orbit. Today’s LA Times obituary sets the record straight. So does this appreciation, by National Journal’s William Powers.