The Daily Caller
U.S. right
Background
The Daily Caller launched in January 2010 after Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel — former college roommates at Trinity College — raised roughly $3 million in startup capital from conservative megadonor Foster Friess. It was conceived as a right-leaning answer to The Huffington Post and became profitable by 2012, growing into one of the higher-traffic conservative news sites. Carlson stepped back from day-to-day editing in 2016 when he joined Fox News full time, and he sold his ownership stake to Patel in June 2020. A separate nonprofit entity, the Daily Caller News Foundation, was established to produce and syndicate investigative and policy reporting; it draws substantial funding from conservative donor networks such as DonorsTrust, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, and Koch-affiliated foundations. Media-bias trackers AllSides and Media Bias/Fact Check both rate the outlet as right-leaning, citing story selection and framing that consistently favor conservative viewpoints and sometimes amplify disputed claims. Notable controversies include a 2017 post that featured video of cars driving into protesters — criticized sharply after the Charlottesville car attack — and a 2012 Media Matters exposé that press critics said leaned heavily on anonymous sourcing. As of 2025, the outlet holds White House press pool credentials, and Amber Duke serves as Editor-in-Chief of the for-profit publication.
Sources
- The Daily Caller - Wikipedia
- The Daily Caller Media Bias | AllSides
- Daily Caller - Bias and Credibility - Media Bias/Fact Check
- The Daily Caller - SourceWatch
- Daily Caller News Foundation - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica
- Daily Caller News Foundation - Influence Watch
- Who Owns The Daily Caller and Who Runs It Today? - LegalClarity
Profile compiled 2026-07-04; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.