Laura Bassett is an American journalist who writes for publications including The Washington Post, GQ, InStyle and Marie Claire. She was previously a Senior Culture & Politics Reporter at The Huffington Post. ^[8]

Laura Bassett worked as a reporter at The Huffington Post in 2009. ^[5] She has commented frequently about women's access to birth control and the implications of policies in the United States. Currently, she writes on Politics, Gender, and Culture for The Washington Post, GQ, InStyle and Marie Claire.^[3]

In 2015, Bassett won a grant from the Pulitzer Center to cover unsafe abortion in Kenya, for which she won the Population Research Institute’s Global Media Award. She has also twice won Planned Parenthood’s Media Excellence Award for feature writing and commentary, and she consulted on Netflix’s Emmy-nominated docuseries “The Keepers.”^[23]

Laura holds a Bachelor's degree in English and Literature/Letters from University of Virginia and M.A. in English and Literature, General from Georgetown University. ^[5]

In February 2020, Bassett accused MSNBC's Chris Matthews of making suggestive comments and inappropriately flirting with her at least twice before she went on his show in 2016. On one occasion, Bassett wrote in GQ magazine, Matthews turned to her while they were in the makeup room and asked, "Why haven't I fallen in love with you yet?" Bassett wrote that when she went on camera with him a few minutes later, she stumbled over her words and forgot "basic vocabulary" because she was so uncomfortable with what had transpired.^[19][20]

Bassett first wrote about her encounters with Matthews in October 2017 but she did not identify him by name out of fear of retaliation.^[19][20] She wrote:

On another occasion, Bassett alleged that Matthews was "bolder" and stood between her and a mirror and asked her if she was going out that night.

"Make sure you wipe this off her face after the show," he allegedly told the makeup artist.

"We don't make her up so some guy at a bar can look at her like this."^[19][20] Bassett wrote in The Huffington Post:

As of March 2020, Bassett has about 2,000 followers on her lebassett Instagram account which is private. She also has about 55,000 followers on her LEBassett Twitter account where she shares her and her colleagues' articles and comments on current events.^[3][22]