In Onward and Upward, the Daily spotlights innovative and motivated Tufts alumni who are achieving success in their chosen fields.
Since Neal Shapiro graduated from Tufts in 1980, he has traveled a long and distinguished road in his career, beginning as the assistant to the Vice President at ABC News and culminating in his appointment as President of NBC News in June of 2001.
From his salvage and expansion of "Dateline" in 1993 after scandal and disorganization left it almost lifeless, to his ability to help out current-day Tufts students with internships, his skills are diverse and his appeal is broad. But his career in television almost didn't happen.
Shapiro began his career at Tufts as Editor-in-Chief at the Observer, while working for the New York Times and the Boston Globe as a stringer. "I was very lucky," Shapiro said. "I wanted to have a career in print, because I had loved working on the Observer. It was one of the best things I did in college."
Shapiro began pursuing that goal in his typically go-getter fashion. "I sent in about 500 resumes [to newspapers] and I got close to a job at the Washington Star [which shut down a year later]," he said. "But then I got an internship with David Burke, Vice President of ABC News, also a Tufts alum. It turns out the president of ABC had a college kid working for him, too."
What Shapiro gained from his print work was not lost once he made the transition to television. "I think [my work in print] was incredibly valuable first because writing is such an important skill to have," he said. "The discipline of writing, of organizing thoughts, of making cogent arguments, being able to report what you've seen or heard: these are all important skills to have."
Additionally, Shapiro credits his ability to edit and critique people's work today to his background in writing.
Shapiro arrived at NBC when he took the job of executive producer of "Dateline" in March of 1993. He was drawn by "the chance to run my own program - I had done a lot on television, but never had the chance."
Shapiro transformed and expanded the show. The Los Angeles Times credited him with restoring the credibility of "Dateline" after an incorrect piece marred its reputation. He expanded the show into its multi-night format while maintaining the quality of the programming, garnering awards that include 25 Emmys and 19 Edward R. Murrow Awards for the program.
"When I took over 'Dateline,' I thought it couldn't get much worse, so there was only one place to go: up," Shapiro said. "I saw there [was] a great foundation of talented people. If we work together, remember our obligation to everyone else - if there's anything risky or confusing, we all have an obligation to look at this again - if we did really smart journalism, the show could recover. And it did relatively quickly."
In light of his start at NBC and the recent controversy over unverified documents at CBS, how does Shapiro monitor all the stories within his department, not to mention MSNBC?
"It is impossible to monitor every piece," he said. "I try to surround myself with the smartest, best people I can find, and if something is particularly high profile or risky, then I get involved."
Shapiro has shown an ability to react quickly and change with the pace of news. He became president of NBC in June, 2001, just three months before Sept. 11. "News changes all the time: it is what makes it interesting," Shapiro said. "What Sept. 11 did is change the whole country."
"News pre-Sept. 11 is often criticized that it was only titillating, while post-Sept. 11 there are big issues of the day to deal with and we cover them all the time - terrorism, the election, the economy," Shapiro said.
Regarding the recent rash of books discussing bias in the media, Shapiro can only speak for his own newsroom. "I think we as journalists need to be on guard that our own personal opinions and views don't shape what we report," he said. "I think the best kind of [news programs and correspondents] are the ones where you don't know who they support."
Shapiro cites Tom Brokaw as an example of a correspondent with whom he has worked frequently, but whose political affiliation is still unknown to him.
Shapiro hopes to help Tufts students learn these lessons for themselves. "I think it is nice to be able to give back a little bit, and Tufts gave me a lot," said Shapiro, who frequently allots NBC internships to Tufts students. "The quality of education, the friends I made there, have helped mold me."
"One of the most import things about being a journalist is to have a wide range of knowledge, and in that regard the liberal education I received at Tufts was incredibly valuable," he added. "So that whether a story is about politics, history or economics, all three of which I studied, or whether someone makes a reference to literature, I have some sense of what they're talking about."
Shapiro was able to grow creatively at Tufts as well. "Another valuable [part of my education] was the ExCollege," he said. "I took courses in film and discovered that I liked it and had a good deal of ability to look at a story visually. Television is about marrying the best words and the best pictures."
Shapiro has many tasks ahead of him as president of NBC. "I think there are a lot of stories we can do better," he said. "The economy is an incredibly important story. We need another way to tell it. It's still a very dry story, with too many numbers."
Shapiro will likely be in a position to achieve that goal for quite some time. "This could be it - I love what I'm doing and I'm fortunate to do it," he said. "At the moment I have no plans, and no plans to make plans."
Shapiro's advice for students is simple. "You'll be fortunate if you can find a job that matches you up with your interests," he said. "I feel incredibly lucky that my job is to pay attention to what happens in the world."
"Be someone who works harder than anybody else," he added. "And never make the same mistake twice."
