Mike Shuster

Mike Shuster
Born(1947-07-07)July 7, 1947
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedNovember 6, 2023(2023-11-06) (aged 76)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationDiplomatic correspondent
Years active1969–2023
Known forWork for National Public Radio

Mike Shuster (July 7, 1947 – November 6, 2023) was an American journalist and blogger. He served as a diplomatic correspondent and a roving foreign correspondent for National Public Radio in the United States, where he filed over 3,000 stories by the time of his retirement in 2013.

Early life and education[edit]

Mike Shuster was born in Philadelphia on July 7, 1947, to Morris Merle Shuster and Beatrice Ritta Gerber Shuster.[1] He studied at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.[1]

Career[edit]

After moving to New York in the late 1960s,[2] Shuster was a photographer and editor at Liberation News Service in New York from 1969 until 1975, a supplier of reports, photos, and graphics for the underground press in the United States.[3] In 1970 and 1976, Shuster traveled around Africa working as a freelance foreign affairs reporter. His reporting trip in 1970 culminated in a three-week visit to the liberated zones of Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony. Several years later, he spent five months reporting on Angola.[1] At the time, Angola was the scene of a war involving three factions fighting for power in the post-colonial African territory.[4]

Between 1975 and 1980, Shuster was a United Nations correspondent for Pacifica News Service where he covered the election of Robert Mugabe in 1980 in Zimbabwe.[4]

Career with NPR[edit]

Shuster joined NPR in 1980[1] as a freelance reporter where he was responsible for covering business and the economy. He also worked as an editor for Weekend Edition.[4] First situated in New York,[2] his reporting on mobster John Gotti in 1989 was credited with an FCC decision which relaxed their ban on the broadcast of expletives.[1][5] As a foreign correspondent, he reported from Tehran, Islamabad, Berlin, Moscow, and Israel and the West Bank.[4]

In September 1989, he was sent to London, where he was senior editor of the London bureau;[4] he travelled to Germany monthly to report on their reunification, and he witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall.[1] In early 1991, he travelled to Saudi Arabia to report on the first Gulf War.[1][4]

In late 1991, he was sent to Moscow as NPR Bureau Chief, where he reported on the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent rise of independent post-Soviet states.[1][5] He covered the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and reported on armed conflicts in Georgia and other former republics of the Soviet Union.[5]

While stationed in Israel, he reported on the Second Intifada, the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, and the 2006 Lebanon War.[1]

Shuster was one of a few American reporters to spend extended time in Iraq after 2004. There, he produced a 2007 series, The Partisans of Ali,[6] which explored Shiite faith and politics.[1] Two years later, he reported on the 2009 elections and subsequent protests.[1]

Shuster retired from NPR in 2013.[1][5] During his time at NPR, he filed over 3,000 stories.[1][7]

Later life[edit]

After retiring, Shuster began producing and writing on a freelance basis. At the time of his death, he was the executive producer of The Great War Project, a website examining the impact of World War I on the world a century after it ended.[8] He worked on television projects and on the Presidential World War I Centennial Commission.[1] He was a senior fellow at UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations.[1]

Personal life and death[edit]

Shuster died from complications of Parkinson's disease in Los Angeles, California, on November 6, 2023, at age 76.[1]

Honors and awards[edit]

Shuster won a number of awards, including:

  • Peabody Award for his team's coverage of September 11[9]
  • Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards for coverage of the Iraq War (2007 and 2004); September 11 and the war in Afghanistan (2003); and the Gulf War (1992)[1]
  • Overseas Press Club Lowell Thomas Award in 2003 for "The Middle East: A Century of Conflict"[1]
  • First in Documentary Reporting from the National Headliner Awards[1]
  • Honorable mention from the Overseas Press Club in 1999[1]
  • SAJA Journalism Award in 1998[1][4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Sneider, Daniel C. (November 6, 2023). "Mike Shuster, who covered the world for NPR for three decades, has died at 76". NPR. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  2. ^ a b Purdum, Todd S. (February 12, 1986). "YOUNG MEN COOKING AT HOME: NEW ROLES, UNFAMILIAR TERRAIN". The New York Times.
  3. ^ "Masthead". content.wisconsinhistory.org. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "Mike Shuster". WKAR. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  5. ^ a b c d "An Eyewitness To History: NPR's Mike Shuster Moves On". NPR. January 3, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2013.
  6. ^ "The Partisans of Ali". NPR. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  7. ^ "Mike Shuster". NPR. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  8. ^ "The Great War Project". greatwarproject.org. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  9. ^ "National Public Radio Coverage of September 11, 2001". The Peabody Awards. Retrieved November 8, 2023.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mike_Shuster&oldid=1218983382"