Fox News host Tucker Carlson is leaving his role at the Daily Caller, the conservative outlet he co-founded one decade ago.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the right-leaning television host will depart the outlet to focus on his role at Fox News, selling his one-third stake to fellow co-founder and publisher Neil Patel.
“I’m just too absorbed in what I’m doing,” Carlson told the publication in an interview. “I wasn’t helping in any way, because I’ve got an hour to do every night.”
Patel, who was born in India, now holds a controlling stake in the Daily Caller, making it the largest digital media company owned by a person of color, he said. The remainder is owned by GOP donor Foster Friess.
“America needs independent news outlets alongside the huge corporate media conglomerates. Daily Caller is publishing hundreds of pieces of original news per day and drawing 15 to 20 million highly engaged readers per month. After my transaction with Tucker, Daily Caller is now the largest minority owned and run digital media company in America,” Patel said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“Our mission is to do high quality news reporting. We will couple that serious reporting with entertainment. More than anything though, we will be a place committed to civil debate. Not enough people in our country are talking openly with those outside their bubbles. I sincerely want us to be a place where that happens,” he added.
Carlson and Patel, who were once roommates at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, formed the Daily Caller in 2010 as a conservative alternative to the Huffington Post. The outlet has since produced major investigative reports that notified the public of failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s interview with the FBI and that national security adviser Michael Flynn lobbied for a Dutch company with ties to Turkey’s government.
Carlson served as editor-in-chief of the publication until 2016, while Patel primarily handled the business side of the outlet.
“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 Patel. “There’s no magic secret, as far as I know, other than he keeps costs in line with revenue.”
Going forward, Patel said his focus will be on “breaking news that’s solid, that’s accurate.”
“That doesn’t mean we won’t have any perspective, but it does mean that it will not be partisan in any way,” he added.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to the Daily Caller for comment.