Longtime anchor offers farewell

CNN's Bernard Shaw calls last show tonight

Bernard Shaw will conclude his career as a full-time CNN anchor on "Inside Politics" at 5 p.m. ET. He's been with CNN since the network's inception

In this story: 'Mr. Cronkite, I have to talk to you' 'A class act' 'He scooped the world' 'Calm, clear and concise' RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Bernard Shaw's award-winning career as a journalist is not one that can be defined by a single moment. It was a series of defining moments, from the days when he bothered Walter Cronkite for advice to his coverage of some of the biggest stories of the past four decades.

And those moments are being recalled Wednesday, as Shaw spends his last day as a full-time anchor for CNN, the network he helped launch and bring to international prominence.

Shaw, 60, announced in November that he's stepping down. It is not a retirement, he said, as he still plans to do work for CNN. He'll also spend more time writing his autobiography for Random House. After that, he wants to write fiction, a book of essays and a journalism primer.

ON AIR Bernard Shaw anchors 'Inside Politics,' 5 p.m. ET. A tribute to Shaw will begin at 5:30     GALLERY 20 years of memories    VIDEO CNN's Bruce Morton looks back at the on-air career of Bernard Shaw, who is leaving the network to write an autobiography Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     AUDIO Shaw announces to CNN viewers that he is "stepping back" 1200K/120 sec. AIFF or WAV sound Shaw reports from Iraq as the Gulf War begins (January 17, 1991) 86K/8 sec. AIFF or WAV sound     MESSAGE BOARD Farewell Bernard Shaw

But that has not stopped people from celebrating his career. Shaw will begin his last official anchoring gig for CNN's "Inside Politics" at 5 p.m. Later in the evening, he will attend a black-tie tribute in his honor at Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington.

Those defining moments will be on full display.

'Mr. Cronkite, I have to talk to you'

Bernard Shaw was a sergeant in the Marine Corps, stationed in Hawaii, when he showed his journalistic gumption and tracked down CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, who was in Hawaii doing a story on Pearl Harbor.

"The very first day we were there," recalled Cronkite, "I started getting notes in my box to call this Bernard Shaw."

Finally, Shaw showed up at Cronkite's hotel and got his attention in the lobby.

"Right away, he said, 'Mr. Cronkite, I have to talk to you. I have to be a journalist and I have to find out how to do that.'"

Shaw eventually got his wish. As a radio reporter in Chicago, he interviewed Dr. Martin Luther King. After the interview, King took Shaw aside and encouraged him to continue his journalism career. Shaw abided.

'This, I'll never forget'

The radio work led to a job with Cronkite's network. Shaw was one of the lowly hacks at CBS, along with Connie Chung and Leslie Stahl.

"(We) were so low on the totem pole when we first came to CBS News we didn't have desks and we were very upset about it," Chung recalled. "So we complained. And they finally put these little kiddie desks in the hallway."

Shaw on his first day on CNN in 1980, left, and the November announcement of his departure

Shaw graduated to higher levels of desks -- and journalism. He helped cover Watergate for CBS before moving to ABC, bringing to American audiences stories such as the mass suicide at Jonestown, Guyana.

Then, in 1980, the Cable News Network, Ted Turner's 24-hour cable news experiment, was born. Shaw left the comfort of network television for the chance to be a part of television history. Colleagues told him he was making a mistake.

It wasn't long before Shaw and the network were tested. It was 1981 and the CNN newsroom was tuned to a police scanner. President Reagan and his cordon of Secret Service agents were moving to a car.

"This, I'll never forget," said Sandy Kenyon, who worked as a producer for Shaw. "We were in the newsroom and you could hear the crackling on the radio. All I heard was 'Rawhide down' -- Rawhide being the Secret Service name for Reagan."

Shaw immediately demanded that CNN take the air, and soon he was revealing the news that Reagan had been shot. But perhaps most revealing of Shaw's journalistic principles came during the hours after.

When the major networks reported that press secretary James Brady had been killed, Shaw refused to follow suit until he received official confirmation. That confirmation never came and the other networks were forced to retract.

'A class act'

As CNN steadily drew more viewers through the 1980s, Shaw led the way. New defining moments were on the horizon.

One came in the 1988 presidential debate between Vice President George Bush and Democratic challenger Michael Dukakis. Shaw, moderating the event, forced the candidates to speak about the death penalty. Dukakis had said he was against the death penalty, but Shaw took a direct angle to test his claim.

"If Kitty Dukakis (Dukakis' wife) were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" Shaw asked.

"(Dukakis) was done for the debate," Kenyon said.

Another moment came in 1989. Shaw was in Beijing when trouble in Tiananmen Square erupted between pro-Democracy protesters and the Chinese government.

When the government cracked down, forcing CNN and other networks to go off the air, it was Shaw who delivered the news to an international audience.

"It was absolutely a class act," said Mike Chinoy, a CNN correspondent who was also in Beijing. "Cool under fire and on top of the subject."

'He scooped the world'

Shaw with President Reagan

As CNN began to establish itself as a player with CBS, ABC and NBC, the news network's finest hour approached -- again, with Shaw leading the way.

It was the Persian Gulf War. On the night of the first attack on Baghdad Shaw and fellow reporters John Holliman and Peter Arnett made television history, reporting from the ninth floor of a downtown Baghdad hotel as bombs rained down in the city. One billion people tuned in.

"The first moments of the bombing, when the skies were lit up, I was in a room across the hall," Arnett said. "I raced for the microphone, and here was Bernie -- 'Atlanta, come to Baghdad, come to Baghdad.'

"He had the microphone first, the instinct to broadcast, to be there," Arnett said. "He didn't hesitate. He scooped the world."

The reviews weren't just self-congratulatory. The major networks seemed to suddenly realize that CNN was leading a revolution in television news. NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, for one, was impressed.

"I remember saying before the Gulf War that CNN was the little engine that thought it could," Brokaw said. "But that night, it demonstrated that it was a full-fledged network and a first-class news-gathering organization in the eyes of just about everyone."

'Calm, clear and concise'

Shaw catches up in his Washington office

The 1990s saw Shaw solidify his image next to network anchors Brokaw, Dan Rather and Peter Jennings. As Shaw leaves for new endeavors, it's clear that he will continue to have an effect on those who follow in his footsteps.

His legacy, say fellow journalists and the people he covered, will be that of a straight shooter, an unshakable journalist who sought the truth and found it again and again.

"He was always calm, clear and concise," Chung said. "If you told him the world was coming to an end, he would still report it factually."

"His job was to get out of me as much as he could to tell the story to the American people," said Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Former President George Bush has similar praise.

"He was straight, to the point, asked the tough question, but never had a kind of edge that put people off guard," Bush said. "I don't know what they're going to do there at CNN. But I think that they must know, in losing Bernie Shaw they've lost an icon."

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