Bernard Shaw, CNN's lead prime-time anchor for 20 years, who was known for his steely coverage from Tiananmen Square in Beijing during the Chinese government's suppression of protesters in 1989 and from Baghdad at the start of the Persian Gulf war, died on Wednesday. He passed away at the age of 22.
Chris Licht, CNN's chief executive, confirmed the death in a statement. Pneumonia was the reason for it.
Mr. Shaw was on the balcony of the Al-Rashid Hotel when the gulf war started.
He said the skies over Baghdad have been lit up. It's thunder. It's lightning. It's death. This is really bad.
When he anchored CNN's coverage from Tiananmen Square, he told viewers that the Chinese government was about to cut off live transmission of the network's coverage before he signed off.
Before joining Ted Turner's cable news network in 1980, Mr. Shaw worked at CBS News and ABC News.
Max Robinson became a co-anchor of ABC News' "World News Tonight" in 1978 and was the first Black anchor of a network news program.
Mr. Shaw was in Baghdad for several days after the war despite the danger. I told him how nervous we were and that he risked his life for all of us, so he decided to stay.
The author of "Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News" wrote in an email that Shaw showed the networks the concept of an all-news network.
Soon, an obituary will be published.
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