TUCKER "DICK" CARLSON Launches New Web Site!
Leroy Knevil
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"Media Notes: A look at Tucker Carlson's political Web site, the Daily
Caller"
By Howard Kurtz
Monday, January 11, 2010; C01
"We need a roundup of the weirdness," Tucker Carlson shouted, walking
past a row of young staffers hunched over laptops on the sort of
cheap- looking teak tables that scream start-up venture.
The Fox News commentator launches his new Web site, the Daily Caller,
on Monday. His partner is Neil Patel, a former Dick Cheney aide. His
opinion editor is Moira Bagley, who spent 2008 as the Republican
National Committee's press secretary. And his $3 million in funding
comes from Wyoming financier Foster Friess, a big-time GOP donor.
But Carlson insists this won't be a right-wing site: "I don't feel
guilty about or ashamed in any way of saying we'll cover the people in
power," he says, dismissing the capital's Republicans as "totally
powerless."
"Our goal is not to get Republicans elected. Our goal is to explain
what your government is doing. We're not going to suck up to people in
power, the way so many have. There's been an enormous amount of throne-
sniffing," he says, a sly grin beneath the mop of brown hair. "It's
disgusting."
When he announced the Daily Caller last spring, Carlson was more
explicit about its ideology, telling Human Events the site would be
"opposed to what's going on" under President Obama -- "a radical
increase in federal power . . . a version of socialism."
Whatever its eventual coloration, Carlson faces a daunting challenge.
Does the post-HuffPost world really need yet another political Web
site?
Carlson, who started out as a Weekly Standard writer before becoming a
cable pundit, says the site will be distinguished by original
reporting, including his own. "One reason there isn't more reporting
online is that it's really expensive," he says.
Beyond the 21-person staff at the office, a stone's throw from the
White House, Carlson plans to attract top freelancers by offering them
a share of ad revenue based on the traffic they draw. With mounting
newspaper layoffs, "there are a lot of unemployed or semi-idled
journalists out there who have experience that is amazing."
The Caller has tapped a number of down-the-middle journalists,
including executive editor Megan Mulligan, who was the Guardian's
Washington editor. Conservative politics "is not my thing," she says.
"They knew what my background is." Mulligan says she signed up because
of Carlson's open-mindedness: "He doesn't mind if people disagree with
him. He's kind of his own man."
Carlson and Patel, who were roommates at Connecticut's Trinity
College, hatched their scheme over dinner at the Palm after the 2008
election. They spent months pitching to venture capital firms.
Patel, who was nominated by the Bush White House to run the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration -- he was never
confirmed -- has a home in Jackson Hole, where Friess is based, and a
friend arranged a meeting in September. Friess, an investment magnate
and a Christian philanthropist, has donated $689,000 to Republican
organizations and the Bush presidential campaigns over the last
decade.
When they met for lunch, Carlson and Patel had funding offers from two
sets of venture capitalists in Washington and Boston, who wanted to
serve on various management committees. Before they finished their
salad, they exchanged looks of amazement as Friess offered to match
the $3 million, but without the bureaucracy. Two days later, they had
a deal.
Why would Friess insist that he didn't even want to serve on the
company's board? "He's eccentric," Patel says.
Friess, who has gone hunting with Cheney, is a man of many opinions.
He has sent out fundraising letters to fight the Democrats' health-
care legislation, calls much of the information on global warming
"distorted and manipulated," and says "the American public is
oblivious to the fact that we are at war and that just playing defense
is a disastrous course to take."
As for his new partners, Friess says by e-mail: "Tucker and Neil
present a huge opportunity to re-introduce civility to our political
discourse. They are mature, sensible men who are very thoughtful and
experienced with pleasant senses of humor and do not take themselves
too seriously. They want to make a contribution to the dialogue that
occurs in our country that has become too antagonistic, nasty and
hostile. . . .
"You don't have to be around them very long to sense that they are
hard working, committed American Patriots who love this country."
While the site has lined up such sponsors as the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce and the National Mining Association, the business model does
not extend to paying for opinion pieces. Bagley says she is soliciting
contributors "from Tucker's Rolodex" and her own. But Carlson disputes
the notion that the commentary will lean right.
"We're not enforcing any kind of ideological orthodoxy on anyone,"
Carlson says.
"It's boring," Patel agrees.
The focus will be on the White House and Congress; early stories will
examine Medicare fraud and wasteful stimulus projects, along with a
Carlson piece on the latest White House party-crasher, Carlos Allen.
But the Caller also plans to feature culture, sports and a humorous
advice column by Standard writer Matt Labash. Carlson says such
potential Web rivals as Politico's top editors, Tina Brown and Arianna
Huffington have been generous in offering advice. Huffington has
written a piece for the Caller about the Web helping to break the
mainstream media's tendency to view issues through a left/right lens.
The buzz factor is crucial in trying to break through the static. The
site has hired a media strategist, Becca Glover Watkins, who persuaded
Carlson to join Twitter and leaked to Fishbowl DC that Tuesday's
launch party will be held at the home of her sister, Republican
lobbyist Juleanna Glover.
At 40, Carlson retains his boyish enthusiasm and preppy look (though
he tossed the bow ties years ago). The other day he padded around the
downtown office in a navy blazer, green striped tie, tan slacks and
battered moccasins. But he seems more measured than when he was
trading insults with Jon Stewart on "Crossfire." Carlson, who once
bragged of being soused during a radio interview, gave up alcohol
seven years ago.
While he will still pontificate on Fox, Carlson says the Web site is
no sideline. "I wake up at 5:30 obsessing over it," he says. "Whatever
my many faults, this is something I'm totally committed to."
In the trenches
With the explosion of media outlets, where is the reporting -- the
actual unearthing of new facts -- coming from these days?
If a study of how news is made in Baltimore is any indication, the
answer is: 95 percent from the old media, mostly newspapers.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism examined 53 outlets that
regularly cover Baltimore over the course of one week last July. In
looking at six major news stories, the group found that 83 percent of
them -- in print, television, radio, blogs and Web sites -- were
essentially repetitive. "Much of the 'news' people receive contains no
original reporting," the study says. "Fully eight out of 10 stories
studied simply repeated or repackaged previously published
information."
Among the remaining stories that advanced the ball, 61 percent came
from newspapers -- from the Baltimore Sun to specialty publications --
followed by 28 percent from local TV stations and 7 percent from
radio. Twitter and local Web sites "played only a limited role: mainly
an alert system and a way to disseminate stories from other places."
One exception: a story noticed by a local blog involving a state plan
to put listening devices on buses to deter crime, which was quickly
dropped after the report on Maryland Politics Watch.
Still, newspapers aren't what they used to be. In covering budget cuts
ordered by Gov. Martin O'Malley, the Sun carried seven articles --
compared with 49 during a similar round of cutbacks in 1991. The
Washington Post ran four pieces, compared with 12 during the earlier
cutbacks. One sign of the times: a Sun correspondent first reported
the shooting of two police officers on his Twitter feed.
[Kurtz also works for CNN and hosts its weekly media program,
"Reliable Sources."]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/10/AR2010011002388.html
