BERNARD SHAW. Born in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., 22 May 1940. Educated at the University of Illinois at Chicago, 1963-68. Married: Linda Allston, 1974; children: Amar Edgar, Anil Louise. Served in the U.S. Marine Corps, Oahu, Hawaii, 1959-63. Reporter, WNUS, Chicago, 1963; news writer, WFLD, Chicago, 1965; reporter, WIND, 1966-68; White House reporter, Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, 1968-71; reporter, CBS News, 1971-74; correspondent, CBS News, 1974-77; Latin American bureau chief and correspondent, ABC, 1977-78; Capitol Hill correspondent, ABC, 1978-79; CNN News Anchor, 1980-. Honorary degrees: Marion College, 1985; honorary D.HL from University of Chicago, 1993; Northeastern University, 1994. Member: Society of Professional Journalists, National Press Club, Sigma Delta Chi. Recipient: International Platform Association's Lowell Thomas Electronic Journalist Award, 1988; Awards for Cable Excellence (ACE) from the National Academy of Cable Programming, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1994; Emmy Awards, 1989 and 1992; National Association of Black Journalists, Journalist of the Year Award, 1989; gold medal, International Film and TV Festival, 1989; Peabody Award, 1990; ACE Award, 1990; Congress of Racial Equality, Dr Martin Luther King Jr Award for Outstanding Achievement, 1993; University of Kansas, William Allen White Medallion for Distinguished Service, 1994. Address: Principal Washington Anchor, CNN America, Inc., The CNN Building, 820 First St NE, 11th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20002, U.S.A.

TELEVISION

1980 CNN News
1989 The World Today

As principal Washington anchor for the Cable News Network (CNN), Bernard Shaw has built a reputation for asking difficult questions and upholding unfaltering journalistic ethics. His style and professionalism have enabled him to land impressive interviews with world leaders. His most visible, sensational, and some would say, impressive moment as a journalist came in 1991. In Baghdad, Iraq to complete a follow-up interview with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Shaw was one of three CNN reporters who worked during a major attack by the Allied Forces. With his colleagues Shaw brought unprecedented, live coverage of the Allied Forces' bombing. On 16 January 1991, more than one billion homes watched Shaw and his colleagues deliver around-the-clock coverage of Operation Desert Storm.

Shaw's coverage of the war earned him numerous national and international journalism awards, including the Eduard Rhein Foundation's Cultural Journalistic Award, a George Foster Peabody Award, and a cable ACE Award as best newscaster of the year. Shaw's receipt of the Rhein Foundation award is particularly meaningful because it represents the first time this award was bestowed on a non-German.

Live coverage was nothing new for Shaw, who also presented live broadcasts of the events surrounding the student revolt in China's Tiananmen Square until CNN was forced by the Chinese government to discontinue coverage. Shaw was in the right place at the right time, and his coverage of the uprising earned him and CNN considerable recognition. His awards for coverage of Tiananmen Square include a Cable ACE for best news anchor and an Emmy for anchoring the single most outstanding news event. CNN won a Golden ACE, a Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton, and a Peabody for its coverage of China.

Shaw is best known for his political reporting at CNN. Shaw is regular anchor of The International Hour, The World Today, and Inside Politics. His political coverage includes debates, primaries, conventions and all the hoopla of presidential campaigning.

In 1988, while moderating a presidential debate between George Bush and Michael Dukakis, Shaw asked Dukakis if he would change his mind about opposing the death penalty if his own wife were raped and killed. Political analysts credit Shaw's question, and Dukakis' off-guard response, as portraying Dukakis as unemotional. Dukakis' campaign never recovered from the backlash of his response to Shaw's question.

Shaw is a graduate of the University of Illinois, which established the Bernard Shaw Endowed Scholarship Fund to honor his career and assist promising young men and women who share his interests and integrity. Shaw is a major benefactor to that fund.

-John Tedesco