Pundit Tucker Carlson, who recently joined Fox News, announced earlier this week that he would launch a new news and opinion website, akin to Huffington Post. Unlike the HuffPo, however, Carlson’s site will bring news, analysis and opinions from a right-leaning perspective.
That is awesome news, of course. The more high quality conservative websites, the better. You have to wonder, however, about Carlson’s understanding of how the Internet works. He said, for instance, that the site aims to bring news before Drudge – perhaps the fastest news generator around. That would be awesome, but it is not easily done. You need people to watch the news constantly, 24/7. Every minute nay every second, of the day, someone has to keep an eye on what’s going on.
Furthermore, if you want to do what the Huffpo does, you need high quality investigative journalists and bloggers to join your ranks. That is possible, of course, but as of yet, I have not heard of any compelling, ambitious, blogger / journalist asked by Tucker to join his website. Who did he ask to join his new site? How does he select ‘right-leaning’ investigative bloggers/journalists? Will it simply be a collection of Fox News staffers trying to find their way on the Internet or what?
Questions, questions, questions. Thus far, none of them answered. I wish Tucker best of luck with this new venture – I am pretty sure that there actually is a lot of room for a ‘right-leaning Huffington Post’ – but he has to understand that he has to truly blow everybody away after announcing his new project before a group of bloggers, and telling them he will be better than the HuffPo, Hot Air, or any other existing site, and faster than Drudge. Those are some darn high expectations: You have to wonder whether the man understands what he’s getting himself into.
If he does, more power to him. If he does not, well, then I fear that his website will disappear within a year or so. Let’s hope it’s the former, Lord knows we (conservatives, classical liberals, libertarians, moderate conservatives, etc.) need it.
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