As principal Washington anchor for the Cable News Network (CNN), Bernard Shaw built a reputation for asking difficult questions and upholding unfaltering journalistic ethics. Shaw made a bold and courageous decision to join the all-news  network  at  its  beginning in 1980 despite wide skepticism that a 24-hour news network would attract viewer interest. Shaw was an important contributor to the network's eventual prominence as an international news leader.

     His style and professionalism enabled him to secure impressive, exclusive interviews with important 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 January 16, 1991. more than a 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 prizes. including the Eduard Rhein Foundation's Cultural Journalistic Award. a George Foster Peabody Award. and a cable ACE Award for best newscaster of the year. Shaw's receipt of the Rhein Foundation Award was the first time this honor had been bestowed on a non-German.

     Live coverage was not new for Shaw; he 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. 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. an 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. Through the 1990s, he was anchor of The International Hour, The World Today, and Inside Politics. He covered debates. primaries. conventions. and the hoopla of presidential campaigning. In 1988, while moderating a presidential debate be­ tween 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's off-guard response with portraying Dukakis as unemotional. Dukakis's campaign never recovered from the backlash of his reaction to Shaw's question.

     Refusing to call his departure from CNN a retirement. Shaw announced his "stepping back" from CNN during a live broadcast of Inside Politics. Shaw stepped back from the anchor chair on February 28, 2001. after dedicating 20 years to the network. Shaw also announced plans to work on an autobiography.

     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.