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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

Obama Needs Police Protection from Palin? Couric Suggests So

Brent Baker
October 7th, 2008 8:58 PM

ABC: McCain ‘Nasty & Bitter’; CBS: He’s Going Negative to Depres

Brent Baker
October 6th, 2008 10:09 PM

'Down and Dirty' Palin Like Agnew with 'Nasty' Attack on Obama

Brent Baker
October 6th, 2008 3:41 AM

Sonnenfeld Predicts Bush to Go Out by 'Destroying All Life on Earth

Brent Baker
October 4th, 2008 10:18 PM

Ex-Newsweek Top Editor Osborn Elliott a Left-Wing Reagan-Basher

Brent Baker
October 4th, 2008 6:32 PM

Letterman Upset at 'Beginner' Palin in 'Passenger Seat,' Mocks Her in

Brent Baker
October 4th, 2008 2:40 AM

Newsweek's Evan Thomas: Palin 'Has a Little Bit of Huey Long in Her

Brent Baker
October 3rd, 2008 10:17 PM

Stephanopoulos Again Declares the Liberal the Debate Winner

Brent Baker
October 3rd, 2008 7:51 AM

'Surprise' Palin 'Did Not Embarrass Herself,' Upset She Didn't Answer

Brent Baker
October 3rd, 2008 3:58 AM

ABC Leads with Palin Unready, Biden's 'Dilemma' is How to Answer Palin

Brent Baker
October 2nd, 2008 8:17 PM

Couric Patronizingly Challenges & Lectures Palin, Had Coddled Biden

Brent Baker
September 30th, 2008 10:58 PM

Couric Badgers Palin on Pakistan; Had Cued Up Biden on Economy

Brent Baker
September 29th, 2008 8:54 PM

In 'Nightline Report Card' Stephanopoulos Gives Obama the Win

Brent Baker
September 27th, 2008 7:10 AM

MSNBC Rues Obama Not Tougher; CBS Shows Only Obama Backer

Brent Baker
September 27th, 2008 2:37 AM

From Wasilla, the 'Top Ten Surprising Facts About Sarah Palin

Brent Baker
September 26th, 2008 3:42 PM

Couric IDs Stevens as 'Senior Republican,' Didn't Cite Rangel's Party

Brent Baker
September 25th, 2008 7:56 PM

Olbermann Boasts of More Air Time, Now Able to 'Say What I Think

Brent Baker
September 25th, 2008 1:55 AM

Couric Scolds McCain for Palin's 'Great Depression' Scare -- Which Cou

Brent Baker
September 24th, 2008 8:25 PM

Olbermann Replaces McCain on Letterman

Brent Baker
September 24th, 2008 4:04 PM

NBC News Jealous? Runs Whole Story on Palin Avoiding Press

Brent Baker
September 23rd, 2008 9:52 PM