The last time alumnus Neal Shapiro (LA '81) entered the Coolidge Room, the year was 1979, and he was a student journalist covering a ceremony for a Tufts professor who won the Nobel Prize. Yesterday, the NBC News President returned to Ballou to be honored himself. Shapiro received this year's Light on the Hill award and spoke afterwards on "The News since 9/11."
Exactly seven months after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Shapiro said the news has fundamentally changed. On Sept. 10, Shapiro gave a speech in London in which he told the audience that Americans were not interested in foreign news. Everything changed the next day, and the media experienced a renewed interest in foreign affairs.
"We're not going to slip back into the days when OJ, Monica, and Chandra were all we wrote about," Shapiro said. "9/11 has accelerated a world in which there are fewer and fewer answers."
Sept. 11 made the job of being a journalist more dangerous, as an estimated 100 journalists have been killed in Afghanistan, he said. The public's view of the media also changed as it watched intense news coverage in the days following the attacks.
"Some of the glamour may be coming off this profession, and that may be a good thing," Shapiro said.
CBS Producer Rob Burnett was also named as a recipient of the award but could not attend yesterday's ceremony. He plans to visit Tufts in the fall.
According to Tufts Community Union President Eric Greenberg, the Light on the Hill award, presented annually to a distinguished alumnus, was given to two graduates in the journalism field in part because of the important role the media has played in the world since Sept. 11.
"Neal Shapiro played a major role in how everyone saw 9/11 and its aftermath," Greenberg said. "He has also shown excellence in his field and maintained an excellent relationship with Tufts."
Shapiro maintained a positive outlook on the media industry throughout his speech. He asserted that network news would not be replaced by the Internet or cable stations any time soon and spoke positively of media company conglomerates, downplaying the existence of any conflicts of interest.
When asked if journalists felt pressure not to criticize President Bush during the period after Sept.11, Shapiro's answer was a resounding no.
"In the early days after 9/11, I'm not sure there was much to criticize," he said. "Now there are a lack of voices out there - it's not that we're afraid to put them on the air."
On occasion government officials asked NBC to hold off on airing a military story, but Shapiro said these requests were presented merely as advice. The station was ultimately left to make its own decisions. When the networks obtained the first video of Osama bin Laden, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice held a conference call in which she asked them to consider the effects of airing the entire 35-minute tape. NBC later decided that airing a long video of "unmitigated hate" was not a good idea.
Though he had high praise for the news magazine format, Shapiro acknowledged that shows are structured according to their audience. However, he said that he was proud of NBC for the line that they have found between "commerce and arts."
"News can't be like spinach," he said. "You have to prepare it to make the audience like it, and if you prepare it well, people will respond."
The event attracted students participating in the Communications and Media Studies (CMS) program and others interested in the news industry. The majority of Shapiro's time was consumed by a lively question and answer period. Audience members responded positively to the speech.
"He had a lot of really good insights into how news has changed since 9/11," said senior Liesel Bradford, a CMS minor. "It was really a tribute to reporters."
"I thought it was a very lovely ceremony and that Neal Shapiro was the right person to receive such an award," Experimental College Director Robyn Gittleman said.
Shapiro was praised for the close ties he has maintained with Tufts since his graduation. He is currently chair of the CMS alumni advisory board and has helped many Tufts students find internships and jobs with NBC.
As Tufts expressed its pride in Shapiro yesterday, the alumnus shared a similar fondness for his alma mater. Since Sept. 11, Shapiro said he has realized the importance of his broad-based liberal arts education. He also credited the Observer, on which he once served as editor-in-chief, for providing him with journalism experience and said managing a college paper was "one of the greatest thrills I've ever had."
Shapiro stressed that students interested in going into journalism hone their writing skills, even if they do not want a writing job. "It forces you to condense your thoughts, express them clearly, move things around, express a point of view, opinion, and emotions," he said.
Administrators at Tufts who remember Shapiro as a student have high praise for him. In addition to working for the Observer, Shapiro was on the Ex College board and taught an Explorations class on the news and Watergate.
"He was a very active member of the Tufts community," Gittleman said. "He was always extremely bright and asked very challenging questions. I think he feels that Tufts was a wonderful training ground for what he has to do now."
