Biography of Mark Tapscott
Mark Tapscott is editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner and a member of The Examiner Newspapers' national editorial board. He is also proprietor of Tapscott's Copy Desk blog.
He is also author of the long-running "Behind the Wheel" automotive column and proprietor of the Tapscott Behind the Wheel blog.
Before joining The Examiner, Tapscott was director of the Center for Media and Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. where he served from October 1999 until joining The Washington Examiner. At Heritage, Tapscott founded the foundation's widely praised Database 101/201 Computer-Assisted Research and Reporting Boot Camps at the National Press Club. More than 200 editors, reporters, producers and researchers representing virtually every major news organization have graduated from the CARR boot camps since 2000. He continues serving as Visiting Journalism Fellow at Heritage.
Tapscott was inducted into the National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame in Mach 2006 and has been recognized by the National Press Foundation for his contributions to journalism education. He has testified before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on FOIA and other transparency-in-government issues, and he has appeared on FOX News and CNN on these issues and others as well. He is a member of the board of directors of the Media Bloggers Association and an advisor to NewsTrust.net. He has been recognized by the National Press Foundation for his contributions to journalism education.
Prior to his Heritage tenure, Tapscott was a managing editor for The Journal Newspapers from 1995 until 1999. Before that, he was Washington editor of Defense Electronics from 1991 to 1994. His journalism career began as a general assignment reporter at The Washington Times in 1985 where he ultimately advanced to business editor, national editor and, finally, assistant managing editor for night news. He started writing the Behind the Wheel column at the Times in 1985 and was a founding member of the Washington Automotive Press Association that year.
Before his journalism career, Tapscott was Assistant Director for Public Affairs of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and publications director at the Republican National Committee during the Reagan administration, following his work in the Reagan-Bush presidential campaign of 1980. He was also press secretary to a U.S. senator and two U.S. congressmen between 1977 and 1980.
A 1972 graduate of Oklahoma State University, he lives with his wife Claudia and their labs, Abby and Okie, in Sykesville, Maryland.