Bernard Shaw Dies: First Chief Anchor At CNN’s Launch Was 82
08.09.2022 - 17:07
/ deadline.com
Bernard Shaw, the first chief anchor for CNN who helped lead breaking news coverage for more than 20 years, has died.
Shaw died Wednesday of pneumonia unrelated to Covid-19, his family announced in a statement to the network. He was 82.
From CNN’s launch in June 1, 1980, Shaw delivered to viewers breaking news in a matter-of-fact yet still warm style, helping the upstart 24-hour news network gain stature against its broadcast rivals. That was evident when he anchored coverage of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981, a breaking news event that established CNN as a reliable outlet to turn to in the midst of national moments of crisis.
By 1988, Shaw moderated a presidential debate, but drew some controversy when he posed a hypothetical question to Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis that referred to the rape and murder of his wife. The point of the question was to elicit Dukakis’ views on the death penalty, and it may have hurt the candidate as he had no emotional reaction to the scenario and instead delivered a straightforward response.
At the outbreak of the Gulf War in 1991, when the network provided groundbreaking coverage of the conflict, Shaw was in Baghdad as he reported on the U.S.-led allied forces attack on the city. CNN beat its broadcast competition in reporting on the outbreak of the war.
As the events were unfolding, Shaw was in his hotel room, reporting by phone that “the skies over Baghdad have been illuminated. We’re seeing bright flashes going off all over the sky.” For more than 12 hours, he and Peter Arnett and John Holliman reported from the scene. After they eventually left the country for Jordan, Shaw returned to the air and said, “A couple of times I thought to myself, ‘If you’re