In 1993 he was named the executive producer of '' Dateline NBC '' , and worked to address the aftermath of a series of dismissals at NBC regarding a fake news story produced by the show . According to his alma mater , " Shapiro oversaw the production of several major breaking-news stories , such as the Oklahoma City bombing , the death of Princess Diana , the Columbine tragedy , the war in Kosovo , and the Clinton impeachment trial when he worked as the executive producer of the Emmy Award winning Dateline . He also served as the executive producer for several hour-long specials , including reports on corporate layoffs in America , migrant farm workers , and welfare reform . " In 1998 Shapiro took the show from one night to five nights per week , producing about 800 news stories per year . Upon the expansion of the program , Shapiro stated that the news magazines of each of the major American networks had each pushed the genre , and helped '' Dateline '' become a nightly primetime program . That year the '' New York Times '' said that , " Under Mr. Shapiro 's guiding hand -- and not always to the delight of media critics -- '' Dateline '' has rewritten the rules of the news magazine show . " In a later article , the '' New York Times '' said of Shapiro 's time at '' Dateline '' that he " presided over the expansion of that show to multiple nights , a trend that was later followed by newsmagazines at both ABC and CBS . Under Mr. Shapiro , " Dateline " won 25 Emmy Awards 19 Edward R. Murrow Awards , three Columbia-DuPont awards " and a Gerald Loeb Award
Oklahoma City bombing
Oklahoma City bombing
Neal Shapiro