The Daily Caller News Foundation

The Daily Caller News Foundation was founded by Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel. It describes itself as "a 501(c)(3) non-profit providing original investigative reporting from a team of professional reporters that operates for the public benefit." It is a part of The Daily Caller's "peculiar business structure," according to an article in The Washington Post which was based on an investigation by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). The structure enables The Daily Caller it to "increase revenue while reducing its tax obligation."

The structure “raises significant questions about whether the (c)(3) is operating for private benefit instead of for a charitable or educational purpose consistent with its tax-exempt status,” according to Elizabeth Kingsley, a nonprofit tax expert at the D.C. law firm of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg + Eisenberg.

The Daily Caller brand is both the foundation and the website. The prior is a non-profit charity and the latter, like many media outlets, is a for-profit organization. The Daily Caller website is revenue-driven, but it gets a sizable amount of its content from its own non-profit charity. DailyCaller.com then translates the stories produced by The Daily Caller News Foundation into advertising revenue by driving viewership to the site. A CMD investigation found that 46% of the content published in DailyCaller.com’s Politics section was created by the non-profit affiliate, as was 67% of its US section, 84% of the World section, 95% of its Business section, 44% of its Education section, and 99% percent of its Energy section during the course of the investigation.

On The Daily Caller’s for-profit website, they explain the arrangement as "a licensing agreement" and clarify that the Foundation is "a separate legal entity from The Daily Caller." Furthermore, it asserts that it "currently has over 250 publishers signed onto its free license to run its content on their sites," and "The Daily Caller gets this content on the same terms as all other licensees with no special preference." But, according to CMD's reporting, the Daily Caller gives the Foundation free rent and Internet in exchange for licensing its content to the for-profit operation and the nonprofit’s Editor-In-Chief has served as the for-profit’s Senior-Editor, among other ties. The other news outlets that the Foundation listed to the IRS as recipients of its services only run a handful of Foundation stories per year.

Ties to the Koch Brothers

The Daily Caller News Foundation receives funding from the Koch Family Foundations and the Charles Koch Institute.

Koch Wiki

Charles Koch is the right-wing billionaire owner of Koch Industries. As one of the richest people in the world, he is a key funder of the right-wing infrastructure, including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the State Policy Network (SPN). In SourceWatch, key articles on Charles Koch and his late brother David include: Koch Brothers, Americans for Prosperity, Stand Together Chamber of Commerce, Stand Together, Koch Family Foundations, Koch Universities, and I360.

Ties to the Bradley Foundation

In 2014, The Daily Caller Foundation received $100,000 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation "to support general operations." Bradley detailed the most recent grants in internal documents examined by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). Below is a description of the grant prepared by CMD.

Bradley staff writes, "DCNF's activities are, in many ways, closely akin to that which the Bradley-supported nonprofit National Review Institute and [[Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity do the for the for-profit National Review in the opinion-writing context...Mindful of Directors' stated desires to encourage this kind of "forward-lookingness" in public discourse, staff recommends a $100,000 IRA investment in DCNF for its general operations."

Bradley Files

In 2017, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), publishers of SourceWatch, launched a series of articles on the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, exposing the inner-workings of one of America's largest right-wing foundations. 56,000 previously undisclosed documents laid bare the Bradley Foundation's highly politicized agenda. CMD detailed Bradley's efforts to map and measure right wing infrastructure nationwide, including by dismantling and defunding unions to impact state elections; bankrolling discredited spin doctor Richard Berman and his many front groups; and more. Find the series here at ExposedbyCMD.org.

Ties to White Nationalists

Former Daily Caller deputy editor and columnist Scott Greer wrote for the Radix Journal between 2014 and 2015, an online publication affiliated with Richard Spencer and the white nationalist National Policy Institute, which describes itself as an "independent organization dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States". National Policy Institute is one of a few organizations attempting to repackage racist and white supremacist ideas in non-threatening, highbrow academic language. Greer resigned from the Daily Caller after his "alt-right" views and connections were made public.

"Alt-right" member Jason Kessler also contributed three articles to The Daily Caller. Kessler and Richard Spencer organized the 2017 Charlottesville rally attempting to unite various white supremacist, white nationalist, Klu Klux Klan, neo-Nazi, neo-Confederate, and "alt-right" groups. The rally left counter-protestor Heather Heyer dead and over 33 injured, after which Kessler's author page and articles were surreptitiously deleted. One of Kessler's articles has been archived and can be found here.

Climate Change Denial

A July 2017 article alleging that "global surface temperature readings by scientists in recent years 'are totally inconsistent with published and credible U.S. and other temperature data.'" attempted to pass off a WordPress PDF blog post as a "peer reviewed study." After a Breitbart article also cited this "study", fact-checker Snopes intervened, giving the claim "A peer-reviewed study has found evidence that nearly all of global warming has been fabricated by climate scientists" a "False" rating.

Funding

The Daily Caller is a for-profit company, but The Daily Caller News Foundation is a nonprofit which receives donations from many sources.

"Sources of Support include the Charles Koch Foundation, the Charles Koch Institute, an anonymous donor through the donor trust, the Bradley-supported Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity, and the Searle Freedom Trust"

• Charles Koch Foundation: $3,429,493 (2012-2018)
• Charles Koch Institute: $50,200 (2015-2017)
• Diana Davis Spencer Foundation: $700,000 (2015-2018)
• Donors Trust: $130,000 (2014-2015)
• Dunn Foundation: $10,000 (2022)
• Ed Uihlein Family Foundation: $25,000 (2019)
• Foster Friess: $3,000,000 (2010)
• Independence Institute: $10,000 (2012)
• Koch Family Foundations: $2,683,243 (2012-2017)
• Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation: $400,000] (2014-2019)
• Sarah Scaife Foundation: $925,000 (2016-2018)
• Searle Freedom Trust: $900,000 (2014-2019)

Core Financials

2019

• Total Revenue: $2,514,241
• Total Expenses: $2,474,874
• Net Assets: $917,768

2018

• Total Revenue: $2,330,393
• Total Expenses: $2,658,664
• Net Assets: $878,401

2017

• Total Revenue: $2,559,847
• Total Expenses: $2,505,122
• Net Assets: $1,206,672

2016

• Total Revenue: $1,142,882
• Total Expenses: $2,058,802
• Net Assets: $1,151,947

2015

• Total Revenue: $3,009,557
• Total Expenses: $1,167,196
• Net Assets: $2,067,867

2014

• Total Revenue: $723,578
• Total Expenses: $469,432
• Net Assets: $225,686

2013

• Total Revenue: $134,570
• Total Expenses: $287,154
• Net Assets: $-280,460

2012

• Total Revenue: $215,640
• Total Expenses: $84,988
• Net Assets: $124,124

2011

• Total Revenue: none
• Total Expenses: $3,642
• Net Assets: $1,358

Personnel

Staff

As of September 2021:

• Thomas Phippen, Acting Editor in Chief
• Colby McCoy, Associate Editor
• Elliot Dordick, Associate Editor
• Andrew Kerr, Investigative Reporter
• Jennie Taer, Investigative Reporter
• Mary Margaret Olohan, Social Issues Reporter
• Ailan Evans, Reporting Fellow
• Steven Hall, Reporting Fellow
• Sebastian Hughes, Reporting Fellow
• Harry Wilmerding, Reporting Fellow
• Kendall Tietz, Reporting Fellow
• Thomas Catenacci, Reporting Fellow
• Kaylee Greenlee, Reporting Fellow
• Andrew Trunsky, Reporting Fellow
• Samantha Renck, Multimedia Reporter
• Carter DeWitt, Chief Development Officer
• Whitney Tipton, VP, Development

Former Staff

• Geoffrey Ingersoll, Editor-in-Chief
• Dave Brooks, Managing Editor
• Emma Colton, Deputy Editor
• Ethan Barton, Deputy Editor
• Leah Jessen, Network Editor
• Sydney Shea, Editor
• Ben Whedon, Editor
• Michael Bastasch, Senior Reporter, Energy, Climate and the Environment
• Kevin Daley, Senior Reporter, Politics, Courts
• Sean Moody, Producer, Video
• Jessica Kramer, Reporter, Video
• Luke Rosiak, Investigative Reporter
• Chuck Ross, Investigative Reporter
• Peter Hasson, Investigative Reporter
• Katrina Willis, Video Editor
• Emily Larsen, Reporter, Fact-Check
• Bradley Sylvester, Reporter, Fact-Check
• Chris White, Reporter, Politics, Tech, Climate, the Environment
• Grace Carr, Reporter, Politics, Abortion, Marriage
• Henry Rodgers, Reporter, Politics
• Joshua Gill, Reporter, Politics, Religion
• Anders Hagstrom, Reporter, Politics, Justice, Crime, Punishment
• Nick Givas, Reporter, Politics, Television
• Timothy Pearce, Reporter, Politics, Energy, Labor
• Jason Hopkins, Reporter, Politics, Energy, Immigration
• Molly Prince, Reporter, Politics, Finance, Economy
• Neetu Chandak, Reporter, Politics, Immigration
• Evie Fordham, Reporter, Politics
• Whitney Tipton, Reporter, Politics
• Ryan Kibby, Video Editor
• Vincent Shkreli, Video Editor

Board of Directors

As of December 2019:

• Tucker Carlson, Chairman
• Neil Patel, President
• Christopher Bedford
• Marcus Sterne
• William Cerveney

Articles and Resources

IRS Form 990 Filings

2019

2018

2017

2016

ExposedByCMD Articles

• Who Bankrolls Tucker Carlson’s Hateful Propaganda? Why the Kochs of Course. by CMD Editors
• Exposed: Tucker Carlson, His “Charity,” and the Trump Campaign Cash He Didn’t Tell FOX Viewers About by Calvin Sloan
• Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller Peddles Spin on Women’s Issues and More by Lisa Graves