Beau Brendler

Bio

Beau Brendler is the director of Consumer Reports WebWatch, the leader in investigative reporting on trust and credibility in the online marketplace. To date, WebWatch's credibility campaign has led more than 170 sites, including The New York Times, CNET, HP, Barnes & Noble, The Mayo Clinic, CNN, Monster, HotJobs, Travelocity and Orbitz to agree to uphold the WebWatch credibility guidelines, making steps toward improving the integrity of the Web.

Brendler joined Consumers Union in February 2001 to launch WebWatch. The organization's research and investigative reports have been written about by many of the world's major news organizations and leading U.S. newspapers. WebWatch's work on Web credibility has been translated into more than 30 languages, from Icelandic to Malay. Prior to joining Consumers Union, Brendler was editorial director and a founder of ABC News.com. He was asked to help launch the TV network's news site and create its newsroom while working in Washington on ABC News' PoliticsNow site, a joint venture with the Washington Post and National Journal. He had been news editor of the PoliticsUSA site, created by National Journal and The Hotline. Brendler was also editor-in-chief of two Washington-based technology magazines, now owned by the Washington Post Co.

During his tenure at ABC News.com, the site won most of online journalism's major honors, including two consecutive Society of Professional Journalists' first-place awards for breaking news, for coverage of the Kosovo war, and for the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk; the first-ever Online News Association first-place award, for breaking news coverage of the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle; the Radio and Television News Directors Association's 2001 Edward R. Murrow award for best television news-affiliated site; the People's Voice Award Webby for best news site; two consecutive Best Digital Journalism Awards from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation; and top news honors from the Southeast Asian Journalists Association and the National Association of Black Journalists, among others.

Individually, Brendler has won several reporting awards, including the 1993 C.B. Blethen Memorial Award for Distinguished Investigative Reporting. He is an oft-cited source on online credibility, consumer awareness, privacy and security, media issues and search engines. As WebWatch's director he has been quoted in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Reuters, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Kansas City Star, Christian Science Monitor, Business Week, InformationWeek, the Wall Street Journal and dozens of other publications.

He created, organized and oversaw WebWatch's national summit on Web credibility in New York City in April, 2003. He has led or participated in Web credibility research efforts in the U.K., the Netherlands, Slovenia and Portugal, involving representatives from Thailand, Malaysia, Russia, Lithuania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and many others.

Brendler started his journalism career at weekly newspapers in Seattle, Wash., and then as a reporter and assistant city editor at the Anchorage Times daily newspaper in Alaska until its buyout and closure in 1992. He taught journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park, and covered the White House, Pentagon and Congress on the technology beat for Thomson publications. He lives in Patterson, N.Y., with wife Priscilla, daughter Olivia and son Alexander.

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