Bernard Shaw, CNN’s 1st chief anchor, dies at 82

By DAVID BAUDER
AP Media Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Bernard Shaw, CNN’s chief anchor for two decades and a pioneering Black broadcast journalist best remembered for calmly reporting the beginning of the Gulf War in 1991 as missiles flew around him in Baghdad, has died. He was 82. He died of pneumonia on Wednesday at a hospital in Washington, according to Tom Johnson, former CNN chief executive. Shaw was at CNN for 20 years and was known for remaining cool under pressure. He was also remembered for his blunt question of Michael Dukakis during a 1988 presidential debate, asking the Democrat if he would favor the death penalty for someone had raped and murdered his wife, Kitty Dukakis.