Early in his career, Shapiro investigated the murder of JonBenet Ramsey for the
Globe tabloid newspaper, but he quickly turned against it reporting his editors to the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for criminal violations, and later testifying before a
Colorado grand jury. Shapiro was profiled in October 1998 by
Newsweek magazine as a young, dedicated tabloid journalist, but by May 1999,
New York (magazine) reported that he experienced a "reincarnation as a fervid anti-tabloid crusader." He has since engaged in a long-standing campaign against the tabloid industry by speaking out against their journalism practices and supporting legislation to penalize paparazzi when endangering the public. Shapiro's anti-tabloid views have been controversial among other journalists, and he has been both praised and criticized by the mainstream press. Shapiro's change of heart came at a time when tabloids were immersed in controversy due to the mysterious
death of Diana, Princess of Wales, who died during a paparazzi chase in
Paris on August 31, 1997. British journalism professor Michael Tracey, who was teaching mass media at the
University of Colorado convinced Shapiro that continuing to work for the tabloids would be immoral since Shapiro believed the stories accusing
John Ramsey were false. Shapiro felt compassion for the people his editors were targeting, and he telephoned John Ramsey to apologize for his participation in the tabloid journalism world. Soon thereafter, Shapiro reported his editors to the FBI for conspiring to blackmail lead Boulder Detective Steve Thomas for sealed grand jury evidence, and revealed how his editors engaged in commercial bribery and illegal information brokering. A grand jury was convened by the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office and the "Globe" challenged the charges on First Amendment grounds. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled against the tabloid, and
Globe editors pledged to donate $100,000 to the University of Colorado journalism ethics studies program and publicly admit they had acted "unethically" in exchange for a dismissal of all charges. In a 2003 interview with
CNN host
Paula Zahn, Shapiro said he never broke the law while working for the tabloids, but admitted that his "reporting helped inflict a lot of misery on innocent people," and that he was interested in helping victims of tabloid persecution. That same year the
Vail Daily summarized Shapiro's change of heart, reporting that "he left the tabloid world in a blaze of glory handing the
Globe to the FBI on a silver platter." ==Investigative journalism==