CNN anchor Bernard Shaw has died at the age of 82

CNN
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Former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw died Wednesday at a Washington, D.C., hospital of pneumonia unrelated to Covid-19, Shaw’s family said Thursday. Shaw was 82.

Shaw was CNN’s first lead anchor and was with the network when it launched on June 1, 1980. He retired from CNN after more than 20 years on February 28, 2001.

During his storied career, Shaw reported on some of the biggest stories of the time – including the May 1989 Tiananmen Square student uprising, the First Gulf War live from Baghdad in 1991 and the 2000 presidential election. .

“Beloved CNN anchor and colleague, Bernard Shaw, died yesterday at the age of 82. Bernie was a CNN original and was our Washington anchor when we launched on June 1, 1980,” Chris Licht, CNN chairman and CEO, said in a statement Thursday. “He was our anchor anchor for the next twenty years from coverage of the presidential election to his iconic coverage of the First Gulf War live from Baghdad in 1991. Even after leaving CNN, Bernie remained a close member of our CNN family, providing our viewers with context for historical events of the past year. The condolences of all of us at CNN go out to his wife, Linda, and his children.”

Funeral services for Shaw will be closed to family and invited guests only, with a public memorial service planned for a later date, his family said.

“In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Bernard Shaw Scholarship Fund at the University of Chicago. The Shaw family requests complete privacy at this time,” the family said in a statement provided by former CNN executive Tom Johnson.

In a statement, Johnson said Shaw was “a lifetime example of excellence” and will be “remembered as a fierce advocate for responsible journalism.”

“As a journalist, he demanded accuracy and correctness in reporting the news. He won the respect of millions of viewers around the world for his integrity and independence. He resolutely resisted any lowering of ethical news standards or compromise of solid news coverage. He could always be trusted as a reporter and as an anchor,” Johnson said.

“Bernie was my personal friend and colleague for over 55 years. I will miss him terribly,” he added. “My wife Edwina and I send our deepest condolences to Bernie’s wife Linda and his family.”

Shaw was born on May 22, 1940, in Chicago to Edgar and Camilla Shaw.

He spent four years in the Marine Corps, stationed in Hawaii, when he sought out TV news legend Walter Cronkite for advice on becoming a journalist.

Shaw began his career as a radio reporter in Chicago, during which he interviewed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who told him, “One day you’ll make it, just do something good,” Shaw recalled.

His first job in television was as a political reporter for CBS, helping to cover the Watergate scandal. He later became ABC’s Latin America correspondent and bureau chief, where he and his team captured the only aerial photographs of the massacre in Johnstown, Guyana.

He left ABC to take a job at Ted Turner’s Cable News Network, the world’s first 24-hour television news network — a decision he says many of his former colleagues thought was crazy. “I thought this was the last frontier in network television news,” he had said.

Shaw is often credited with raising CNN to international prominence and making CNN the news leader it is today. He was also known for being cool under pressure – which was exemplified by his coverage of the First Gulf War.

He and his fellow reporters, John Holliman and Peter Arnett, made television history by broadcasting the night of the first attack in Baghdad in real time and would become known as the “Baghdad Boys”.

“The sky over Baghdad was lit up. We see bright flashes going off all over the sky,” Shaw said, reporting from a hotel in Baghdad as bombs rained down.

Arnett recalls how in the first moments of the bombing, “I was reaching for the microphone and there it was Bernie – ‘Atlanta, come to Baghdad, come to Baghdad.'”

“He had the microphone first, the instinct to broadcast, to be there,” Arnett said. “He didn’t hesitate. He took over the world.

Shaw told NPR in 2014 that “one of the things I was striving for was being able to control my emotions in a raging inferno.”

“The more intense the news I’m covering, the more cool I want to be. The more I tone down my emotions, even my tone of voice, because people rely on you for accurate, dispassionate descriptions of what’s going on. And it would be a disservice to news consumers – be they readers, listeners or viewers – to get emotional and get carried away,” he said.

CNN made its debut with Shaw as its Washington anchor at a time when other networks had white men as anchors.

After less than a year on the air for CNN, Shaw led the network’s coverage of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. When the other networks reported that White House press secretary James Brady had been killed, the show delayed reporting until it received official confirmation—which never came, and the other networks had to back off.

Shaw also earned a reputation for conducting tough interviews. His sharp questions were on display when, in 1988, he became the first African-American journalist to moderate a presidential debate.

In the runoff between then-Vice President George H.W. Bush and Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, Shaw asked the candidates to talk about the death penalty.

When Dukakis said he was opposed to the death penalty, Shaw asked, “If Kitty Dukakis (Dukakis’s wife) had been raped and murdered, would you have preferred a permanent death penalty for the murderer?”

The issue was a fraudulent candidate career killer and, according to some, changed the trajectory of the race.

Shaw announced in November 2000 that he would retire from CNN to spend time with his family and write books.

“My best time has been just being here helping to do what attracts you, our viewers, your demand to be informed instantly with familiar context and insight. And for you around the world and in our great land here in the United States, more than your praise, I value your criticism and your suggestions. The study can be instructive,” he told viewers.

“Harder than getting into this business is leaving it and leaving CNN, especially after 20 years here. But you know, some roses are so fragrant. And as a gardener, I want to grow them and smell them more – when I’m not writing.”

Shaw was the recipient of many awards for his journalism, including the Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Contribution to Broadcasting, and was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Television Hall of Fame in 1999.

“We were a team. This is the only way the network can succeed. That’s the only way the network made history,” he told CNN staff and alumni at CNN’s 35th anniversary celebration in Atlanta in 2015. “We succeeded because you made excellence a habit. He did that every day … he continued to serve as a soldier.”

Shaw said he always believed that “the most important chair is not the anchor chair.”

“The most important chair was the task desk chair. The most important chair was the sound recorder’s chair, the director’s chair, the editor’s chair, the reporter’s chair.

His advice to employees: “Promise that when you show up for work as a CNN employee, you will work to take excellence one step further.”

Shaw is survived by his wife, Linda, and their two children, Amar Edgar and Anil Louise.

This story has been updated with additional information.