The Daily Caller

The Daily Caller
Type Online news site
Format Website
Editor-in-chief Tucker Carlson
Founded 2010
Headquarters Washington, D.C.
Circulation positive decrease 2,294 (November 2014)[1]
Website dailycaller.com

The Daily Caller is a politically conservative[2][3] news and opinion website based in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Tucker Carlson, a libertarian conservative[4][5] political pundit, and Neil Patel, former adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney, The Daily Caller launched on January 11, 2010. In late 2012, The New York Times reported that the site had quadrupled its page view and total audience and had become profitable without ever buying an advertisement for itself.[6]

As of April 2014, Carlson serves as the publication's main editor-in-chief with Christopher Bedford as his managing editor.[7]

Staff

Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson

The Daily Caller is in the White House rotating press pool and has full-time reporters on Capitol Hill.[8] Notable reporters and columnists include Matt Lewis and Matt Labash.[7]

Ideology

The Guardian referred to The Daily Caller as "the conservative answer to The Huffington Post".[9] An article in The Washingtonian commented that in comparison to The Huffington Post, "The Caller puts more emphasis on its own reporting, whereas HuffPo is happy to feature someone else’s story" and "The Caller's headlines tend to be less misleading and opaque."[10] In February 2012, Internet marketing research firm comScore found a plurality of The Daily Caller's site visitors to be self-identified political Republicans; of the remaining visitors, independents outnumbered Democrats 26.8 percent to 8.6 percent.[11]

In an interview with Politico, Carlson said that The Daily Caller will not be tied to ideology but rather will be "breaking stories of importance". In a Washington Post article, Carlson said "We're not enforcing any kind of ideological orthodoxy on anyone."[12] In an interview with The New York Times, Carlson said that the vast majority of traditional reporting comes from a liberal point of view and called The Daily Caller's reporting "the balance against the rest of the conventional press".[13]

In March 2015 Daily Caller columnist Mickey Kaus quit after editor Tucker Carlson refused to run a column critical of Fox News coverage of the immigration policy debate.[14] Carlson, who also works for Fox, reportedly did not want the Caller publishing criticism of a firm that employed him.[15] Journalist Neil Munro quit two weeks later.[16]

Controversies

Senator Bob Menendez prostitution controversy and FBI investigation

In March 2013 The Daily Caller posted interviews with two women claiming that New Jersey senator Bob Menendez had paid them for sex while he was a guest of a campaign donor.[17] The allegation came five days before the 2012 New Jersey senate election. News organizations such as the New York Times, ABC News and the New York Post declined to publish the allegations, viewing them as unsubstantiated and lacking credibility.[18][19][20]

The FBI investigated the allegations and found no evidence to substantiate them, though it led to scrutiny of Menendez's relationship with the donor.[21][22] Subsequently, one of the women who accused Menendez stated that she had been paid to falsely implicate the senator, whom she had never met.[18][22] Menendez's office described the allegations as "manufactured" by a right-wing blog as a politically motivated smear.[23] On March 18, police in the Dominican Republic announced that three women had acknowledged they had been paid $300–425 each to lie about having had sex with Menendez.[24]

According to a spokesperson in the Dominican government, the women in question claimed to be paid to make the false claims in question by someone who identified himself as a Daily Caller employee. The Daily Caller issued a statement denying the claims.[25] The Daily Caller denied having paid any individuals for any participation in the stories about Menendez, and detailed the discrepancies between the new reports from Dominican authorities and the original interviews the outlet had conducted.[26][27][28] Erik Wemple, an opinion blogger for the Washington Post, was critical of the Caller's "eagerness to publish completely unsubstantiated allegations", concluding that the Caller was "ducking accountability".[29][30][31]

On April 1, 2015, Menendez was indicted on federal corruption charges.[32] The FBI had been building the case against the senator since The Daily Caller's 2012 report.[33] During a news conference following the indictment, Menendez said that the FBI had been "tricked into starting this investigation three years ago with false allegations by those who have a political motive to silence me."[34]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "DailyCaller.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-11-17.
  2. ↑ Carter, Bill (October 1, 2013). "George Will to Leave ABC News for Fox News". The New York Times.
  3. ↑ Gerth, Joseph (September 23, 2013). "Sen. Rand Paul thinks Chief Justice Roberts should have Obamacare". The Courier-Journal.
  4. ↑ "Tucker Carlson". Cato Institute.
  5. ↑ "Paul Begala-Tucker Carlson Debate". C-SPAN.
  6. ↑ Stelter, Brian (October 7, 2012). "Still a Conservative Provocateur, Carlson Angles for Clicks, Not Fights". The New York Times. Retrieved October 7, 2012.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "About us". The Daily Caller. Retrieved September 28, 2013.
  8. ↑ Calderone, Michael (February 1, 2010). "Daily Caller joins W.H. pool". Politico. Retrieved July 8, 2010.
  9. ↑ Bunz, Mercedes (January 11, 2010). "The Daily Caller: the conservative answer to the Huffington Post". The Guardian (London). Retrieved January 11, 2010.
  10. ↑ Bartlett, Tom. "The Bearable Lightness of Being Tucker Carlson". The Washingtonian. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  11. ↑ "ComScore". April 16, 2012. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  12. ↑ Kurtz, Howard (January 11, 2010). "Tucker's excellent adventure". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 27, 2010.
  13. ↑ Stelter, Brian (October 7, 2012). "Still a Conservative Provocateur, Carlson Angles for Clicks, Not Fights". The New York Times. Retrieved October 7, 2012.
  14. ↑ Byers, Dylan (March 17, 2015). "Mickey Kaus quits Daily Caller after Tucker Carlson pulls critical Fox News column". Politico.
  15. ↑ Wemple, Erik (March 18, 2015). "Daily Caller’s Tucker Carlson takes a stand for censorship". Washington Post.
  16. ↑ Byers, Dylan (March 31, 2015). "Neil Munro, reporter who heckled Obama, out at Daily Caller". Politico.
  17. ↑ Boyle, Mathew (November 1, 2012) "Women: Sen. Bob Menendez paid us for sex in the Dominican Republic". The Daily Caller. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Schwartz, Rhonda (March 5, 2013). "Woman Says She Was Paid to Lie About Claim of Sex With Senator Menendez". ABC News. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  19. ↑ Lipton, Eric (February 16, 2013). "Inquiry on Democratic Senator Started With a Partisan Push". New York Times. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  20. ↑ Bump, Philip (March 8, 2013). "Daily Caller's Prostitution 'Scoop' Was So Thin Even the 'New York Post' Passed". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  21. ↑ Leonnig, Carol D.; Wallsten, Peter (February 15, 2013). "FBI investigating allegations Sen. Menendez patronized prostitutes in Dominican Republic". Washington Post. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Leonnig, Carol D.; Londoño, Ernesto (March 4, 2013). "Escort says Menendez prostitution claims were made up". Washington Post. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  23. ↑ Weiner, Rachel (January 30, 2013). "Menendez: Prostitution allegations 'manufactured' by 'right-wing blog'". Washington Post. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  24. ↑ Coglianese, Vince (March 18, 2013). "Dominican police: Three women lied about sex with Menendez". The Daily Caller. Associated Press. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
  25. ↑ Leonnig, Carol D.; Lazo, Luz (March 22, 2013). "Dominican official links Daily Caller to alleged lies about Menendez". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 22, 2013.
  26. ↑ Christopher, Tommy. "The Daily Caller Denies Paying $5,000 For Fake Robert Menendez Prostitute Stories". Mediaite. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  27. ↑ Calderone, Michael (March 22, 2013). "Daily Caller Denies Paying For Prostitutes' Robert Menendez Claims". The Huffington Post. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  28. ↑ "Conservative website accused of paying prostitutes to lie about sex with senators". CBS News. Associated Press. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  29. ↑ Wemple, Erik. "Did Daily Caller pay to frame Menendez?". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 22, 2013.
  30. ↑ Weigel, David. "It's getting so you can't even trust shady Dominican attorneys anymore". Slate. Retrieved March 22, 2013.
  31. ↑ Bump, Philip. "This time we actually believe The Daily Caller". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 22, 2013.
  32. ↑ Kane, Paul; Leonnig, Carol (1 April 2015). "Sen. Robert Menendez indicted on corruption charges". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  33. ↑ Ybarra, Maggie (1 April 2015). "Bob Menendez, N.J. senator, indicted on corruption charges". The Washington Times. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  34. ↑ Bump, Philip (2 April 2015). "The Menendez-Obama-Iran-Cuba conspiracy theory doesn’t make any sense". The Washington Post. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  35. ↑ "List of 2012 Edward R. Murrow Award winners". Radio Television Digital News Association. Retrieved 6/12/12. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  36. ↑ "List of American Legion Fourth Estate Award winners".
  37. ↑ "List of Telly Award winners".

External links