Happy Friday Pragmatic Obots!
The series concludes today with Mr. Bernard Shaw.
Bernard Shaw was a member of the CNN anchor team from the network’s inception in 1980. Previously, he was with ABC News as Senior Capitol Hill Correspondent, reporting extensively on the economy. Shaw also filed special reports during the 1979 hostage crisis at the American embassy in Tehran. His first assignment with ABC News was as Latin American correspondent and bureau chief. In that capacity, he was one of the first reporters to file a story from Guyana on the mass suicides at Jonestown and covered the overthrow of General Somoza in Nicaragua.
As an original anchor for CNN, Bernard Shaw was a witness to the birth of the 24-hour news network. Today, Shaw is retired from broadcasting and is working on a book and other writing projects.
After signing with CNN on June 1, 1980, Shaw covered some of the biggest stories of the past decades, providing live coverage of the student demonstrations in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, the 1994 earthquake in Los Angeles, the funeral of Princess Diana, President Clinton’s impeachment trial and the 2000 U.S. election.The former U.S. Marine may be best known, however, for making television history as one of the “Boys of Baghdad.” In January 1991, Shaw stayed behind — with Peter Arnett and the late John Holliman — after other Western reporters had deserted the city.
As bombs rained down on the city outside their hotel window, the three, reporting by phone, coolly brought those images into living rooms across the world during the first attacks of the Persian Gulf War.
On January 16, 1991, Shaw was one of three CNN reporters who captivated a worldwide audience of more than one billion with continuous coverage of the first night of the Allied Forces’ bombing of Baghdad during “Operation Desert Storm.” Shaw was in the Iraqi capital to update his exclusive interview with President Saddam Hussein conducted in October 1990.
Throughout his career, Shaw was often an eyewitness to some of the biggest events of the last quarter-century, a position he did not take lightly. “Whenever I found myself with a box seat on a historic story, the one thing I always strove to do was realize I had a responsibility … It made me focus even more on the disciplines of journalism — being fair, being accurate.” “[You also need to have] regard for viewers, listeners and readers,” he continued. “If people are depending on you, if you are the only source of accurate information, you have a dreadful responsibility. I say dreadful because it’s so awesome.”
Barnard Shaw studied history at the University of Illinois. On April 27, 1991, the University of Illinois Foundation announced the establishment of the Bernard Shaw Endowment Fund, creating scholarships at the University’s Chicago campus in his honor. Shaw has personally contributed more than $300,000 to the Fund—his way of “giving back” some of what has been given to him. The unrestricted grants are awarded annually to qualified students needing financial aid, with preference given to minority and women liberal arts majors who best represent those values and interests exemplified by Shaw.
A Chicago native, Shaw and his wife Linda reside in Takoma Park, MD. ( More)
