RIP: Former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw dead at 82. “Shaw was CNN’s first chief anchor when it launched its 24-hour cable news network in June 1980. He retired from CNN in February 2001 after more than 20 years.”
To give but one example of how journalism has changed over the decades, it’s hard to imagine most legacy journalists today asking a question this hard-hitting to a Democrat during a presidential debate:
Massachusetts Governor Mike Dukakis didn’t exactly charm his way into voters’ hearts during the 1988 debates with his response about whether he would support the death penalty should his wife, Kitty, be raped and murdered. A longtime opponent of the death penalty, Dukakis responded to the startling question from CNN’s Bernard Shaw, “No, I don’t, Bernard, and I think you know that I’ve opposed the death penalty during all of my life. I don’t see any evidence that it’s a deterrent and I think there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime.” While some criticized the fairness of the question, to viewers the answer seemed both dispassionate and dismissive. Years later, Dukakis would recall his response, saying, “I have to tell you, and maybe I’m just still missing it … I didn’t think it was that bad.”
When Shaw left CNN in 2001, John McCain quipped, “I cannot tell you whether Bernie is a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or vegetarian,” and while the same could be said of the nominally Republican McCain, 21st century television journalists make it far more obvious where there allegiance lies.