A Huffington Post for the right?

Today marks the debut of The Daily Caller, a conservative news and opinion website edited by former CNN and MSNBC commentator Tucker Carlson and modeled after the highly successful liberal website, Huffington Post. Matt Drudge protege Andrew Breitbart says that independent conservative sites like the Daily Caller — as well as his own BigJournalism.com, which also just launched — are desperately needed "as checks and balances against entrenched media power." But with all the content already available, does the internet really need another news site — liberal or conservative?

America needs a second opinion from the right: Tucker Carlson and Andrew Breitbart are "on the cutting edge of a new effort on the right to circumvent major media outlets," says Lachlan Markay in News Busters. Pointing out liberal bias in the mainstream is one thing. But it will take alternative sources of news like Daily Caller and Big Journalism "to truly circumvent that bias."

"Tucker Carlson set to launch 'Daily Caller' journalism site"

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Carlson's business model isn't very conservative...: It's hard to take Tucker Carlson seriously as a defender of conservatism, says Jed Lewison in DailyKos, given that he announced the creation of the Daily Caller last year from the offices of the Heritage Foundation. "Talk about wingnut welfare!" Progressive sites such as Talking Points Memo, DailyKos and The Huffington Post relied on the free market, not big foundations, to get started. "You'd think that a 'libertarian' like Tucker Carlson would have a little more faith in that ol' free market magic."

"Bow ties are the new pajamas"

The site looks silly: Why exactly is he doing this — besides the fact that someone was stupid enough to give him $3 million to do it?, asks TBogg at Firedoglake. For instance the site is launching today with a story by Carlson about White House gatecrasher Carlos Allen. "It almost makes me wish I hadn’t read about this…almost a week ago" at other news sites.

"Tucker Carlson is now at play in the fields of teh internets"

He has to make sure he gets things right: Carlson is clearly eager to launch his an influential news site -- maybe too eager, says Mark Silva at the Swamp. For instance, with today's headline about Dems backing away from Sen Harry Reid, Carlson seems to have "jumped the gun" — the story overstates the situation and seems to come from the comments of only one source, an anonymous aide.

"Bubba nation"