Ex-CNN Anchor Shaw Delivers Message to White Males, Owners

by Richard Prince, Columnist - The Maynard Institute, http://www.maynardije.org/columns/dickprince/070811_prince/

In an August 11, 2007 column on the Maynard Institute website, columnist Richard Prince shared highlights from Bernard Shaw's NABJ Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech. The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) held their annual convention last week in Las Vegas. Shaw is a former CNN anchor who retired in 2000.

Prince writes:

Bernard Shaw, the veteran journalist who retired as CNN anchor in 2000, struck out at unnamed media owners who are "sabotaging the public good" with their "profit fixations," and, as he accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award Saturday night from the National Association of Black Journalists, warned white males that they ignore diversity at their peril."Journalists, hear me tonight," Shaw told an awards banquet audience at the NABJ convention in Bally's hotel in Las Vegas. "There are some owners in the business — bosses, parent companies — whose profit fixation and staffing directives and decisions sabotage the public good they profess to serve. "They are turning the people's right to know into the people's fight to know," he said. "Beyond this ballroom tonight, white males, wake up," Shaw continued. "Globally, you are an island speck in an ocean of color. "The reins of power will weaken and so will your grip — if you do not faithfully support our nation's greatest strength, diversity. "To you, caught in the middle, stay vigilant. You must stay strong." Shaw emphasized the word "globally" in discussing his remarks afterward with Journal-isms, saying he was aiming at a worldwide audience. "What matters is that my words give hope" to people of various ethnic groups, he said. Shaw would not name the white males or the companies he was talking about. "People in the media know who they are," he said. "All you have to do is look at the numbers. They know who they are and we know who they are." Shaw, 67, also said, "I was speaking for the historical record. I expect my words to resonate long after I'm dead." He said a speech accepting the NABJ's Lifetime Achievement Award deserved carefully chosen words. "That was in the tradition of Frederick Douglass," the first well-known black journalist, he said. "I was seeking to inspire, to inform and to light a fire under some asses."

Click here for Prince's column in its entirety on the Maynard Institute website.