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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

Pinkerton’s Amusing Take on How Media Would Have Reacted If GOP Had

Brent Baker
September 9th, 2012 12:11 AM

Taranto Discredits Media ‘Fact Checkers,’ Shows How They Amplify t

Brent Baker
September 8th, 2012 2:56 PM

Pelley and Williams Zinged Mrs. Romney from Left, But Avoid Contentiou

Brent Baker
September 6th, 2012 9:31 PM

ABC Spikes Democrats Forced to Make Embarrassing Platform Fixes, Celeb

Brent Baker
September 5th, 2012 8:40 PM

CNN to Fluke: Does Limbaugh Calling You a ‘Slut’ Reflect ‘Romney

Brent Baker
September 4th, 2012 9:28 PM

Howard Fineman: Republican Convention ‘Mean’ and ‘Like Dropping

Brent Baker
September 3rd, 2012 8:39 PM

‘Fed Up’ Gingrich Calls Out Media Refusal to Discuss Extremism Amo

Brent Baker
September 2nd, 2012 7:09 PM

Chuck Todd: ‘Technically Factual’ Ryan ‘Distorted the Truth

Brent Baker
August 30th, 2012 9:27 PM

Brian Williams Reprimands Ann Romney for Saying Mitt Romney ‘Is Goin

Brent Baker
August 29th, 2012 8:39 PM

Pelley Pushes Ann Romney on ‘Whether Republicans Have Women’s Best

Brent Baker
August 28th, 2012 8:33 PM

Leno Hails Obama’s ‘Compassion for Regular People,’ Insists Repu

Brent Baker
August 28th, 2012 2:44 AM

CBS’s Pelley Presses Mitt Romney: ‘I Wonder How You Would Explain

Brent Baker
August 27th, 2012 9:18 PM

Stephanopoulos Hypes ‘Political Hurricane from Todd Akin’ While Ba

Brent Baker
August 26th, 2012 4:47 PM

Saturday Night Funny Video: Obama Skips Out on Restaurant Check

Brent Baker
August 25th, 2012 11:39 PM

NBC and CBS Pounce on Romney’s Birth Certificate ‘Swipe’ at Obam

Brent Baker
August 25th, 2012 12:24 PM

NBC Can't Decide What 'Cut' Is, Doesn't Like Romney's Suggestion Obama

Brent Baker
August 13th, 2012 10:56 PM

Schieffer Presses Romney and Ryan With Myth That Wealthy Pay Low Tax R

Brent Baker
August 13th, 2012 2:12 AM

Flashback: Schieffer Chided Paul Ryan; To Interview Him on Tonight’s

Brent Baker
August 12th, 2012 4:54 PM

NBC Hypes July as ‘Hottest Month Ever’ – Doesn’t Bother to Men

Brent Baker
August 9th, 2012 9:07 AM

Saturday Night Funny Video: Obama and Biden Continue ‘Search for Per

Brent Baker
August 5th, 2012 12:14 AM