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. He covered the
Supreme Court and the
White House for the
Star before moving to the
Baltimore Sun, where he was the national political correspondent. 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 1985 to 1998, where he was often referred to by the show's host as Freddy "the
Beadle" Barnes. Barnes hosted the radio show ''What's the Story
for Radio America. He is currently a moderator for the Voice of America show Issues in the News''. 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. 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. In 2006 Barnes wrote a favorable biography of President
George W. Bush titled
Rebel in Chief. Reviewing it in
The Washington Monthly, Isaac Chotiner called it "fawning and at times unintentionally amusing", revealing its author as a "perfect Bush hack". He is a member of the board of the
Institute on Religion and Democracy. As a member of
The Falls Church, he and his family voted to disaffiliate the congregation from the
Episcopal Church in the United States of America. He is a member of the board of trustees of The Fund for American Studies, in which he also serves as a senior fellow. In the days leading up to the
2008 United States election, Barnes was the only political pundit out of 27 catalogued by the
Huffington Post (including
Karl Rove,
Alex Castellanos,
Matthew Dowd,
Ed Rollins, and
George Will) to predict a John McCain victory for
U.S. President (286 to 252 electoral votes). ==Personal life==