Charles Bierbauer, newsman who excelled at CNN and USC, dies at 83

Charles Bierbauer, a former CNN political and international reporter who later became dean of the University of South Carolina’s journalism school, has died at 83.

Bierbauer, who retired from USC in 2017, was known for his unruffled poise and clear, on-the-scene accounts of complex headline-grabbing events from Atlanta to Washington to Moscow and everywhere in between.

He died Friday, Aug. 29, at his home in Spruce Pine, a quiet town of 2,200 in the western North Carolina mountains that was a sharp contrast from the bustling news-filled international capitals where he reported the doings of the world’s most powerful people, from presidents to dictators. His death was announced by his family, CNN reported.

No cause of death was given. The family obituary said “his generous heart gave out after a good, long life.”

Tributes came from colleagues and former students.

“I am going to miss Charles Bierbauer,” wrote Josh Dawsey on Facebook. He is a former Bierbauer student who won Pulitzers at The Washington Post and is now with The Wall Street Journal.

“While I was an undergrad at the University of South Carolina, I spent hundreds of hours annoying (and hopefully sometimes entertaining) the esteemed Dean in his corner office in the dungeon-like Coliseum,” Dawsey wrote. “He always had a wry observation or piece of constructive criticism for me and my work. His door was always open. He encouraged a kid who grew up in rural SC to think more expansively about the world and what I could do with my life.”

CNN news anchor Wolf Blitzer said in a statement to CNN Sunday, “Charles inspired me and helped me throughout my assignments at the Pentagon and the White House. He was a good friend, colleague, and mentor.”

News accounts of Bierbauer’s death told of a varied career at the pinnacle of the nation’s broadcast news industry, a career studded with accomplishments and honors.

Bierbauer, who joined CNN in 1981, “traveled with presidents to all 50 states and more than 30 nations, and he served as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association from 1991 to 1992. He also covered presidential campaigns between 1984 and 2000, as well as the Supreme Court,” CNN reported.

He also was CNN’s senior White House correspondent for nine years, covering the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He covered the Pentagon and the Supreme Court. In 1997, he won an Emmy for his coverage of the 1996 terrorist bombing at the Atlanta Olympics.

Before joining CNN, Bierbauer spent more than 10 years abroad covering international events at the height of the Cold War between the U.S. and the then-Soviet Union. He did a stint as ABC News Moscow bureau chief and later was the network’s bureau chief in Bonn, Germany. He covered all US-Soviet summits, starting in 1975 with President Gerald Ford and the Soviet Union’s Leonid Brezhnev through the 1992 meeting between Presidents George H.W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin, CNN reported.

Just before his appointment to USC, the state’s flagship university, Bierbauer had been a reporter and producer for a Discovery Channel documentary on the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In 2002, Bierbauer, newly retired from CNN, vied with three other people — a media lawyer, an advertising professor and a financial magazine editor — to lead USC’s newly merged College of Mass Communications and Information Studies.

Then-USC president John Palms chose him. USC officials said they believed Bierbauer’s appointment would elevate the stature of the program and help with donations.

As dean, Bierbauer oversaw the long-awaited 2015 move of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications from its windowless cavern-like home under the Carolina Coliseum to a bright, cheery three-story remodeled building just off the USC’s historic Horseshoe quad. The move signified the entry of USC’s journalism programs into the digital age, news accounts said at the time.

“He really was the right dean for the right time,” said Doug Fisher, a former Associated Press reporter and now-retired instructor at the journalism school who taught editing, copy editing and reporting. Bierbauer had the right personality and drive to accomplish the move “with all its steps and hurdles” to the new building, Fisher said.

“He was a journalist’s journalist,” said Fisher, who posted in a Facebook forum that “Charles was a wonderful journalist and friend. Always had an open door to talk about the good and bad and to swap stories. Oh did we swap stories.”

Bierbauer didn’t rest on his laurels during his 15-year deanship. He moderated debates between high profile political figures, brought prominent journalists to USC, hosted a weekly current affairs show featuring experts and newsmakers on S.C. ETV, wrote letters to the editor and gave interviews. His writings appeared in columns in The State newspaper and elsewhere on numerous topics from the Cold War to national politics. He stressed the importance of ethics in every aspect of journalism.

A review of his columns and letters published over the years in The State shows that freedom of speech, gun violence, openness in government bodies and changes in public discussion wrought by the pervasiveness of the 24-hour news cycle were key issues to him.

In one column, Bierbauer defended the right of news media to show the shocking photos of Iraqi prisoners brutalized by the U.S. military, as well as photos showing the military’s positive side.

“Not everyone is going to like seeing these photographs,” Bierbauer wrote in a 2004 column. “Not everyone is going to think they should be published. But the media are right in showing us both perspectives — what those in the military have sacrificed and what they have squandered. The public has a need to see them.”

He was always available to add perspective, such as in 2007 when he told a Charlotte Observer reporter about the importance of the first live televised presidential debate in North Carolina that year. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were on the program.

“It’s the first opportunity to start making comparisons and to hear the candidates think on their feet,” said Bierbauer to reporter Jim Morrill. “I like to see how the candidates function under a certain amount of pressure. We know whether they’re liberal or conservative. I like to see that element of spontaneity.”

In 2016, when he announced he was stepping down from his dean’s post, Bierbauer told State reporter Avery Wilks he wasn’t quite retiring but didn’t know what he would be doing. All he knew, Bierbauer said: “It’s time for me to do something else.”

Bierbauer, born in 1942, was a native of Allentown, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor’s degree in Russian and bachelor and master’s degrees in journalism. Early in his career, he worked for the Associated Press and Westinghouse Broadcasting, informally known as “Group W,” according to CNN

News reports said Bierbauer is survived by his wife, Susanne Schafer, a former Associated Press reporter, and four children.

This story was originally published September 1, 2025 at 4:31 PM with the headline "Charles Bierbauer, newsman who excelled at CNN and USC, dies at 83."