Fred Barnes (journalist)

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Frederic W. Barnes, an American journalist, author, and conservative political commentator, is the executive editor of the news publication The Weekly Standard, co-host with Mort Kondracke of The Beltway Boys on the Fox News Channel, and also regularly appears on Fox's Special Report with Brit Hume.

The son of an Air Force officer, Barnes spent two years in the U.S. Army and considered applying to West Point, but instead decided to attend the University of Virginia where he studied history. Barnes graduated from the University of Virginia and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

After spending several years as a journalist with The Charleston News and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, he became a reporter for the Washington Star in 1979. Barnes covered the Supreme Court and the White House for the Star before moving to the Baltimore Sun. He was the national political correspondent at the Baltimore Sun. For ten years from 1985 to 1995, he was senior editor and White House correspondent for The New Republic. He also wrote the "Presswatch" media column for the American Spectator. He was a panelist on the public affairs show The McLaughlin Group from 1988 to 1998, where he was often referred to by the show's host as Freddy "the Beadle" Barnes.

In 1984, Barnes was chosen to be one of three panelists quizzing then-President Ronald Reagan and challenger Walter Mondale in the first nationally-televised debate of the 1984 presidential campaign.

A low church Episcopalian, Barnes was an outspoken opponent of the consecration of Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the church's first openly gay bishop. He is a member of the board of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a conservative Christian social action group.

Barnes has made cameo appearances in the Hollywood films Dave, Getting Away with Murder, and Independence Day. He has thrown out the first pitch for a Boston Red Sox baseball game at Fenway Park.

Though having gone to separate high schools, Barnes was a friend of fellow Fox News personality Brit Hume in high school, and at The University of Virginia.

Most recently, Barnes penned a biography of President George W. Bush titled "Rebel in Chief".

Statements drawing criticism

In reference to the book The Truth About Hillary (Sentinel, June 2005), Barnes claimed that "Republican-hating media ... trashed a perfectly respectable, though highly critical, biography of Hillary" [1].

On July 29, 2006, Barnes refuted claims of anthropogenic climate change on Fox News's Beltway Boys. When co-host Mort Kondracke cited recent climate data, Barnes shrugged, saying "so?" Kondracke answered, "[G]lobal warming is a fact." Barnes retorted, "Yeah, but who caused it? You don't know." Kondracke replied, "Humans," Barnes protested: "No! You don't know that." [2]

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