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Brent Baker

Editor At Large
@ BrentHBaker

Brent Baker (@BrentHBaker) is the Steven P.J. Wood Senior Fellow and Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center (MRC), the publisher of NewsBusters. He’s been the central figure in the MRC’s News Analysis Division since the MRC’s 1987 founding and in 2005 spearheaded the launch of NewsBusters.

Baker oversaw the selection of the award nominees and “winners” for the MRC’s “DisHonors Awards” (highlight video clips on NewsBusters), presented at an annual gala, and each week he helps the Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard select a “Liberal Media Scream.” Those picks are added, on a one week delay, to NewsBusters.

In 2001, Weekly Standard Executive Editor Fred Barnes dubbed Baker “the scourge of liberal bias.”

For 13 years, 1996 through 2009, he compiled and edited the daily CyberAlert e-mail and online report. In late May of 2009 the CyberAlert became an e-mail-only product based on BiasAlert postings on the MRC's Web site until it was discontinued in 2015. 

From 1988 through 2015 he served as Editor of Notable Quotables (archive), a two-page newsletter which delivered a bi-weekly compilation of quotes from the liberal media which reflected biased reporting. At each year-end, an annual “awards for the year’s worst reporting” were selected by a panel of judges. (NQ collections on NewsBusters since 2016). From 1988 to 1999 he also oversaw MediaWatch, a monthly and later bi-weekly newsletter which the MRC discontinued in order to concentrate efforts on more timely analysis via the Internet.

Baker is the author of How to Identify, Expose & Correct Liberal Media Bias, a 1994 book which offers detailed explanations and suggestions for what the average citizen can do about media bias. Baker was co-editor of And That’s the Way It Isn’t: A Reference Guide to Media Bias, a 1990 book containing excerpts, reprints and summaries of 45 studies documenting the media's liberal bias during the 1980s.

Baker lived in Massachusetts through high school, whereupon he fled the liberal commonwealth for George Washington University in DC and, since graduation, a life in Northern Virginia. He edited the conservative college student newspaper The Sequent and graduated from GWU with special honors in political science in 1985.

After a stint at Conservative Digest magazine, Baker joined Brent Bozell at the National Conservative Foundation (as editor of the newsletter Newswatch) before helping to create the MRC in 1987.

An avid fan of the Washington Capitals NHL hockey team, in January of 2009 the Washington Post's "DC Sports Bog" took note of Baker's attendance at a Caps game with John Kerry: "The Caps, John Kerry and a Scourge."

Bio on MRC.org.


Latest Blogs

Hume Predicts Health Bill Win Will Prompt ‘Wave of Gushing Coverage

Brent Baker
March 21st, 2010 3:24 PM

CBS: ‘Mean from the Start’ Health Debate ‘Turned Even Nastier Ye

Brent Baker
March 21st, 2010 1:09 PM

ABC: Anti-ObamaCare Protest ‘Turned Very Ugly’ with ‘Racial and

Brent Baker
March 20th, 2010 8:56 PM

DC Journalists Get Together Naked to Sweat After Watching Wolf Blitzer

Brent Baker
March 20th, 2010 4:16 PM

ABC Highlights Congresswoman Upset ObamaCare Opponents Dare Pressure H

Brent Baker
March 19th, 2010 8:30 PM

Hannity-Backed Foundation Refutes Blogger's Accusation His Concerts 'A

Brent Baker
March 19th, 2010 4:51 PM

Washington Post's Pearlstein: Passing Health Bill Will 'Restore...Trus

Brent Baker
March 19th, 2010 12:47 PM

CBS as 'Giddy' as Democrats Over 'Certified Price Tag' from 'Trusted

Brent Baker
March 18th, 2010 9:05 PM

ABC Replaces Clinton Operative with the Wife of a Clinton Operative as

Brent Baker
March 18th, 2010 4:27 PM

At Correspondents' Dinner, Biden Quips They're Obama’s 'Base

Brent Baker
March 18th, 2010 1:19 AM

Competitors See FNC's Baier as 'Contentious' with Obama While ABC Devo

Brent Baker
March 17th, 2010 8:23 PM

CBS Charged Anti-ObamaCare Protesters Acted in 'Ugly' Manner, But Poli

Brent Baker
March 17th, 2010 3:34 PM

NBC Poll Finds ObamaCare Seen as ‘Bad Idea’ by 12 Point Margin, Sq

Brent Baker
March 17th, 2010 2:31 AM

In 'Angry' and 'Nasty' Atmosphere, CBS's Reid Contends Anti-ObamaCare

Brent Baker
March 16th, 2010 7:58 PM

Prime Time CBS Drama to Target Health Insurance Company

Brent Baker
March 16th, 2010 10:47 AM

NBC's Williams Trumpets New 'Catch Phrase' from Obama: 'We Need Courag

Brent Baker
March 15th, 2010 8:09 PM

ABC’s Republican Character Under Siege from ‘Conservative Purity P

Brent Baker
March 15th, 2010 2:22 AM

Pauley Back on NBC, Yearned for ‘Cool, Steady Hand’ of ‘Exceptio

Brent Baker
March 13th, 2010 7:13 PM

NBC’s Williams Showcases ‘Gripping’ Kennedy Screaming Against Me

Brent Baker
March 11th, 2010 2:19 AM

ABC and CBS Pass Along Sympathetic Anecdotes from Left-Wing Anti-Insur

Brent Baker
March 10th, 2010 10:20 AM