[2] During his tenure at the Los Angeles Times, Shaw was given the opportunity to spend weeks to months working on an investigation of a single topic that drew his attention, in contrast to the typical day-by-day reporting of most covering the news media.
Shaw was more than willing to address issues at the Times itself, including a four-part series published in 1990 that showed that the paper had a record for employing and advancing minority workers that was one of the worst in the area.
The report publicly criticized the parent company's CEO Mark H. Willes, publisher Kathryn M. Downing, and Shaw's boss, editor Michael Parks.
[2][3] Shaw's investigations started after the verdicts were first released, and led him to conclude that the media did not perform investigative coverage of the prosecution's case, a failure that might have led to the earlier realization that the evidence offered in the case was "incredibly weak", as described by Ira Reiner, who had served as Los Angeles County District Attorney during the time of the trial.
[5][6] Cellist Melora Creager wrote a song titled "Border Village" on her solo CD Perplexions in which David Shaw is mentioned in the last line as having died alone at 62.