Arnold Diaz, an investigative reporter who spent significant time at three New York TV stations, died October 24 in Greenwich, Connecticut. He was 74 and had suffered from multiple myeloma.
Diaz spent 22 years at WCBS New York, where his investigations happened under the “Shame on You” banner, as Diaz chased down an array of scammers and swindlers. He then ran the “Shame, Shame, Shame” segments on WNYW, and finished up at WPIX, where the investigative reports were titled “What a Shame!”
Diaz spent 50 years in television. The New York Times reported that Diaz had the word “Shame” tattooed on his abdomen.
Diaz was born in 1949 in Brooklyn, and moved to North Miami Beach when he was 5. He graduated from Florida State University in 1971 and got his master’s in journalism at Northwestern University.
Diaz got his start in television at WPLG Miami, then moved to WCBS in 1973. “Shame on You” began in the late ‘80s.
Walter Goodman, a television critic at the Times, wrote in 1990, “Anybody who has ever felt bilked by a car repair outfit, or has wound up with an over-the-hill chicken or been exasperated by the city’s bureaucracy can cry amen to these mini-exposés.”
Diaz went to ABC News program 20/20 in 1996 as a consumer investigative correspondent, then returned to WCBS in 2003.
Across his career, Diaz said he was cursed at and spit at, and had a Manhattan jeweler he was investigating place a gun on the table between them.
He retired from WPIX in 2022. At the time, NYC Mayor Eric Adams wrote on Twitter, “Congratulations to the legendary Arnold Diaz on fifty years of incredible service to New Yorkers as a fixture on our televisions, delivering hard-hitting journalism that got results for so many. Enjoy a well-deserved retirement!”
Diaz is survived by his wife, Shawn, whom he met at CBS when she was a set decorator for soap operas and Captain Kangaroo. The couple has two daughters.
