Los Angeles Times media critic David Shaw died last night. Though Shaw was disdainful of bloggers (they don't have "four experienced editors" checking their copy), he was also a talented and honest journalist. I first ran across Shaw's work nearly a decade ago as I was working on my senior project at Cal Poly SLO—an analysis of abortion coverage in the Los Angeles Times in 1990. In my extensive Lexis-Nexis research, I discovered a series by Shaw examining the very same thing.

I found Shaw's criticisms of extensive bias against the pro-life position in American media to be well-founded, and his research helped guide my own work.

He will be missed.