Fox News Host Tucker Carlson Is Leaving The Daily Caller

Citing his responsibilities at Fox News, prime-time host Tucker Carlson has left the Daily Caller.

Carlson co-founded the conservative digital publication about a decade ago and had a roughly one-third stake in the website. He began hosting his opinion show on Fox News in 2016, and has been raking in record ratings thanks to his brand of incredulous disdain for leftist media and internet chatter. Consider his recent berating of Elmo for teaching children that “America is a very bad place” during a Seasame Street special about the Black Lives Matter protests that aired on CNN:

Tucker Carlson attacks Elmo pic.twitter.com/KTkycca7SP

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) June 10, 2020

“I’m just too absorbed in what I’m doing,” Carlson told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. “I wasn’t helping in any way, because I’ve got an hour to do every night [on Fox News].”

Neil Patel, who founded the Daily Caller and serves as its publisher, bought out Carlson’s stake and now owns a controlling interest in the website. Major Republican donor Foster Friess is now the site’s only other main investor.

Carlson, 51, and Patel, 50, were roommates at Trinity College in Hartford. “The only reason the Daily Caller still exists is because the guy running it is one of the very rare conservative intellectuals who understands business,” Carlson said of his college buddy. “There’s no magic secret, as far as I know, other than he keeps costs in line with revenue.”

Fries committed $3 million to back them in 2010 when they began publishing the Daily Caller as a right-wing alternative to the Huffington Post. The site has grown by leaps and bounds since then and now has a staff of about 80 employees.

Since Fox News also has a website that theoretically competes for traffic with the Daily Caller, the network never liked Carlson’s involvement with the publication and considered it a conflict of interest, The WSJ reported.

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