Feeling a little frisky this morning? Then you may want to head over to The Daily Caller.

“Who’s Calling The Shots?” was the actual red bold headline on a story this morning on The Daily Caller website by Executive Editor David Martosko regarding President Obama allegedly canceling the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

But a better question might be who’s calling the shots on the publication’s banner ads? See the XXX-rated performance above the story below. The pub’s Twitter feed says they came under a malware attack last night, so that may be one explanation.

We reached out to the publication’s spokeswoman Nicole Roeberg for more on the matter. Roeberg assures us that no, The Daily Caller isn’t planning on regularly running porn on the site. “One of the accounts on our ad server was hacked, and as a result someone was able to place those inappropriate ads on our site,” Roeberg wrote in a formal comment to FishbowlDC by email. “As far as we can tell, the ads were ONLY visible on iPhone and iPad devices, not on computers or Android devices. The problem with the ads has been fixed, and as soon as Google does another crawl of our site, the error message should go away.
The site is perfectly safe to visit now. Obviously, we would never intend to run ads like this on our site.”

UPDATE: Is it really safe? Despite The Daily Caller saying the site is now safe, the warning message still pops up. “What they’re saying is that the problem has been fixed, but Google won’t recognize that until it does another crawl of our site. As soon as that happens, the error message will go away,” Roeberg explained.

Gosh, we hope The Daily Caller’s Matthew Boyle is okay. Last week he accused a bodyguard of assaulting him, when no assault actually took place. Despite repeated emails to both Boyle and the publication’s  NONspokeswoman Nicole Roeberg, we have received no comment. Maybe Baby Boyle is still recovering from the mean man who barely raised his voice at him? After repeated viewings of this video, we always end up with the same conclusion: Boyle exaggerated the “assault” to make himself look like a tough reporter. There is no assault on tape and Boyle is a giant crybaby for pretending that there was one. But, don’t tell that to his defenders. In response to one of Boyle’s “Fast and Furious” tweets, one fan tweeted this over the weekend:

@mboyle1 <—- a 1 man holder accountability machine !!! Matt has #brass #balls (and he has 3 of them )

— chip (@TookieW) June 2, 2012

Boyle has three balls? We’re pretty sure that he’s full-Ken-doll-crotch down there and not packing tri-testicles. What’s worse, Baby Boyle RETWEETS that “compliment” to let everyone what his fan, @TookieW, thinks of his balls. The love fest continues when he gives Boyle a new nickname – “E.T. – Extra Testicle.”

@TookieW I guess I’ll take that as a compliment and not as some abnormality.

— Matthew Boyle (@mboyle1) June 2, 2012

Listen, gents. It’s 2012. No one should judge you for your open and candid conversations about the admiration of each other’s testicles. However, this seems to have spiraled out of control. Between Boyle and his colleague, Michelle Fields, maybe we’ve missed the mandate that if someone tweets a compliment about your hair, legs or testicles, you MUST retweet it. We’ll reach out to their NONspokeswoman again, but somehow we suspect they still have no comment.

In a video posted to The Daily Caller last night, reporter Matthew Boyle tracks down U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. John de Jongh at Reagan National Airport. While we give him high marks for his tenacity, we question what actually happened. Boyle wants to ask the Gov. why he is in Washington when the trip isn’t on his official schedule. Boyle and his cameraman hop on an escalator for a slow moving chase to try to question him. All the while, a bodyguard for de Jongh stands between Boyle and the Gov. When the chase spills outside we hear Boyle squeal, “Why are you touching me?”

Unfortunately, this happens off camera, so we don’t know what the bodyguard did. Hell, we don’t even know if the bodyguard even touched Boyle. So, what really happened? We reached out to Daily Caller NonSpokeswoman Nicole Roeberg and to Boyle himself to inquire what injuries he suffered from the ordeal and whether he called in the attack to the police. Shockingly, neither one is talking.

So, what’s the deal? Boyle seems to have made the whole thing up. His headline says that the bodyguard “assaults” him. There is no assault on tape. Is Boyle so fragile that the mere presence of a bodyguard makes him tremble and cry “assault”? The bodyguard barely even raises his voice at Baby Boyle. Come on, Boyle. Surely, you have enough balls to take a little talking-to and not turn it into an “assault.” Maybe next time you should do your report with a pacifier in your mouth, you big baby.

The Daily Caller‘s very own Matt Boyle made his debut on Gawker yesterday.

After an email exchange between him and a DNC spokesman was leaked to HuffPost and Ben Smith at BuzzFeed, Gawker picked up one of the emails Boyle wrote to DNC Spokesman Brad Woodhouse and called it “The Most Pathetic Email Ever Sent by a Journalist.” The email in question read:

“And, btw, [Slate's] Dave Weigel and tons and tons of other reporters (including many who work for Buzzfeed) say my style of reporting is brilliant. ‘Genius’ says one of Smith’s reporters to me. So cut the crap, grow up and answer the questions—if you’re capable of doing so.”

The drama was also picked by up Weigel here and WaPo‘s Erik Wemple here.

In addition to calling Boyle’s email “pathetic,” Gawker called it “pissy.” The comments on the post weren’t much better. “That’s funny he doesn’t look like a genius,” one commenter wrote. Another made an odd comparison to Marilyn Hagerty, the journalist who wrote the infamous Olive Garden review. Someone else said he looks like Cher’s transgender son Chaz Bono. And still, another commenter said he looks like “an overfed chipmunk who learned to shave.”

Boyle retweeted positive response he received on the matter. He retweeted Politico‘s Ken Vogel who said it was “Disturbing to see flacks leak journo emails-no matter what they say.” Boyle also retweeted this from Alex Schriver, who identifies himself as the Chairman of the College Republican National Committee: “So [Boyle] asked the DNC’s Communications Director to directly communicate [DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's] position on an issue? The audacity!”

We emailed Daily Caller spokeswoman Nicole Roeberg to see if Boyle had anything to say about getting the Gawker treatment. “We’re not worried about it,” she said. “We’re proud of the work Matthew is doing, and we look forward to his next pieces on Operation Fast and Furious.”

Things are getting strained again in the polluted airspace between The Daily Caller‘s Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson and BuzzFeed Editor Ben Smith. Let’s just say getting them in a room and locking the door could be quite entertaining. You guys free for dinner?

Late Wednesday afternoon, Smith drew the ire of The Daily Caller by printing a story about Matthew Boyle‘s exchanges with DNC Spokesman Brad Woodhouse. The story claimed that Boyle “threatened” Woodhouse, and revealed an exchange in which Boyle said what he would write on DNC Chairmwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and AG Eric Holder if he didn’t respond to his questions pertaining to “Fast and Furious” scandal. The damning quote: “I’m giving you until 10 am tomorrow to answer this question, then I’m reporting Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is not supporting Holder,” Boyle wrote Woodhouse.

Woodhouse, in turn, went to BuzzFeed and spilled the details of the exchange. He called Boyle’s behavior “blackmail” and said Wasserman Schultz adamantly supports Holder. He chose not to respond to Boyle — Smith called this “not an unusual practice” in regards to an organization with an opposing agenda.

“It’s no surprise that a left wing hack like Ben Smith is, once again, being used as a mouthpiece by the DNC,” Carlson told FishbowlDC last night.

Smith declined to comment.

Boyle did not return an email full of questions, so we passed them along to the publication’s publicist Nicole Roeberg, but not without at least trying to smoke him out with this tweet: “Sent you questions. If I don’t hear back from you by 8 p.m. I’m going to write that you plan to t.p. Brad Woodhouse’s home.” To which Boyle replied, “lol.”

Roeberg, however, did respond.  We asked if she thought the story was fair, what she makes of Woodhouse going to Buzzfeed with this and does she consider what Boyle said to DNC to be a threat?

She replied, “I don’t consider Matthew’s email to be a threat (or blackmail, as Woodhouse called it).  Matthew was simply letting him know that tomorrow morning, he would be writing a story that said the DNC would provide no verbal support of Holder, unless he had reason to report something different.  Matthew has written several stories on the topic and emailed literally hundreds of spokespeople the exact same question with similar timelines.  Many have answered it, many haven’t, only one chose to turn to the media to try and deflect the story and change the subject.”

Ben and Tucker? The dinner offer stands.

The Daily Caller is hosting an exclusive soireé at their downtown newsroom tonight. Word of the party didn’t spread until last night. As the headline insinuates, beer will be on tap. Popcorn will be served.

Don’t come without a ticket.

Question to ponder: Will Foster Friess, Sugardaddy to the publication and GOP Hopeful Rick Santorum, show up? (When asked if he’d show, publicist Nicole Roeberg left herself an out and remarked, “Not as far as I know.”)

Trouble is definitely brewing today between BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith and The Daily Caller. They’re usually at odds, often itching for a fight. But today is especially contentious.

Earlier today Smith received a call from The Daily Caller‘s Will Rahn. The topic concerned a story Smith wrote today about strife about Israel within the Democratic Party. Media Matters, he writes, plays a big role and has been largely at odds with Congress’s pro-Israel leadership as well as that of Obama. Headline: “Israel rift roils Democratic ranks.” Smith, who we’re told went ballistic on the Daily Caller reporter, followed up with the following tweets:

It must be Tuesday: A call from a Daily Caller reporter with a hot story on how I’m a tool of …Media Matters! Also, I think, Soros.

— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) February 7, 2012

My conspiracy on behalf of Media Matters began with this devious false-flag coverage of them politico.com/news/stories/1… cc @rp_newsletter

— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) February 7, 2012

The publication’s clash with Smith first began in Oct. 2010, eight months after The Daily Caller‘s inception, when Smith questioned the viability of the news outlet. Smith wrote that The Daily Caller is “struggling” to find its place and therefore attacking more established publications like National Review. Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson responded by email: “The Daily Caller is ‘struggling’? What a ludicrous hack job, and stupid. Fuck you.”

Rahn did not return our request for comment. UPDATE: Smith told FishbowlDC: “I’m a little surprised Will would characterize an exchange he told me was off the record, and I won’t reciprocate, but wouldn’t characterize it that way.” Stay tuned…this isn’t over. UPDATE 2: Nicole Roeberg, The Daily Caller‘s Spokeswoman, told FishbowlDC: “As you noted in your story, Will never responded to your request for comment. He didn’t characterize the exchange to anyone. Will stands by any and all pledges of ‘off the record,’ and this would never have been an item for you if the off the record call hadn’t been tweeted about in the first place.”

The Daily Caller issued a release yesterday on current web traffic — 4.6 million monthly unique visitors based on Google Analytics. Quantcast has them at 3.3. million, but in many circles Google Analytics is considered more reliable. They made a special point to blast Politico, as they have on many occasions, saying they had “obliterated the growth pattern of more niche operations like Politico.” Then they offered an unusual sequence of comparisons to entities such as Orbitz and Travelocity.

Asked what they meant by their jab at Politico, Daily Caller Publicist Nicole Roeberg explained by email, “We mean that at our two-year point (this January), we have way more readers than Politico did at their two-year point.”

“At 4.6 million unique readers at the 2-year mark, The Daily Caller has doubled the growth rate of other very successful general online news offerings such as The Huffington Post, and has obliterated the growth patterns of more niche operations like Politico.  The site is currently ranked ahead of many well-known and long-established entities including The Hill, Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, The Economist, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. The Daily Caller also received more visitors in January than the online travel booking sites Orbitz and Travelocity.”

Politico, meanwhile, released their latest numbers this morning in an internal memo to staff. Mentioning that they’ve topped 300,000 Twitter followers, they never once mentioned The Daily Caller or any other publication. VandeHarris wrote:

“Thanks to the hard work of our traffic and web teams,  we topped 77 million page views in January, a new record for us. The previous high was 76 million in March of 2010. We also had 11 million unique visitors to the site, a whisker away from a site record and second-best since launch.”

 

The Daily Caller‘s Michelle Fields needs a wake up call.

Last night she may have gotten one after posting a lighthearted note on Facebook boasting of a criminal who wrote her a 10-page love letter. He watched her on C-SPAN on Christmas Day and wrote her a handwritten letter that he mailed in to The Daily Caller. She wrote, “I just got my first 10 page love letter from an inmate in Pennsylvania serving a 30 year sentence.” One of her 53 Facebook friends who “liked” this wrote, “Congrts.” As if this is some kind of rite of passage for a young female video journalist. Well, it turns out that inmate is not just your garden variety murderer or armed robber — he’s a convicted, violent rapist who terrorized a woman at knife point. Police in Pittsburgh actually believed his intent was to murder her, but somehow he spared her and the authorities nabbed him.

Are we still laughing, Michelle?

Michelle’s cameraman Grae Stafford sent a note to the entire Daily Caller office Tuesday telling newsroom staff what happened. His email was accompanied by a link to a news story detailing what the rapist had done to land himself a 15-30 year sentence. Uncharacteristically for the rambunctious bunch, no one replied, at least not to the entire newsroom.

Meanwhile, Michelle felt the need to again joke — isn’t this all hilarious? — that FishbowlDC would hire the rapist when he gets released. Here’s the thing, Michelle. You won’t be laughing if one of these basement dwellers you are engaging with online regarding your legs or any other part of your anatomy comes after you. This was our original point — your behavior is neither safe nor typical of well-respected female journalists in the TV industry. This was also among our points less than a week ago when we published “Police Blotter” to show the kinds of men you are encouraging and engaging with online. They included @mindfulloffuck and @bigdaddybuckley. But they also include the good folks over at BigGov, your arch defenders, one of whom, Dan Riehl, once suggested you have a wet T-shirt contest. He didn’t suggest it on BigGov, but he did suggest it.

We don’t take issue with the fact that these men exist, or even that they follow Michelle. But when a stranger online comments on your anatomy and retweets a picture of your legs it’s time to delete him. While Michelle collects them as staunch supporters, we get accused of not liking attractive and so-called successful people. Newsflash: We host a beauty contest each year. I personally created The Hill‘s 50 Most Beautiful People of Capitol Hill. We have no problem with beauty. But we do have a problem with a female journalist engaging with, enticing and yes, leading on a potentially dangerous online element.

One of Fields’ followers, Shannon Poe, wrote Tuesday, “@MichelleFields when he gets out, I’m sure Fishbowl DC will have a job for him. ” To which Michelle replied, “@ShannonPoe Hahaha. I think being an obsessive stalker is a job requirement there.”

As funny as that might seem, we know The Daily Caller takes these things seriously. When WMAL’s and Fox News Contributor Mary Katharine Ham, who is still with The Daily Caller but in a looser capacity, used to get stalkerish type gifts, Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson didn’t treat the matter lightly. In one instance, Ham considered calling the police, but in the end decided to inform her superiors and take other precautions that include owning a gun.

Ham’s approach is in clear contrast to Fields. Ham does not engage with male fans who comment on her looks. She also rarely discusses the unusual gifts she has received or the comments made about her online.  “I would call my experience with weird fans and haters rare but occasionally concerning,” she wrote by email. “I pay attention when communication is any combination of two of the following: very frequent, threatening, or demonstrates a disconnect with reality. I take general precautions, keep records of those communications, and give event organizers names to watch out for. I don’t respond to communications, especially to anyone who seems to already have concocted some relationship between us. Nothing has ever gone beyond making me wary, thank goodness. Also, I’m armed.”

We like to have fun here in the Fishbowl — sometimes caustically so to prove a point. But egging on strange men online is not our game — and we hope all female journalists out there will take note from Michelle as to how not to behave online.

Carlson elected to comment through the publication’s spokeswoman Nicole Roeberg…You’re not going to want to miss the explanation.

Read more

The Daily Caller celebrates two years on the planet this week — what, no birthday shout-out in Politico‘s Playbook (h/t When Hell Freezes Over)?

It was January 2010 when The Daily Caller first burst on the scene. Like any start-up, they’ve lost people, gained people, snagged people back after they’ve lost them, and things are constantly changing. The DC is comprised of a wild, raucous bunch who don’t function well on rules — they have a keg in their ping pong room, they subsist on energy drinks and Marlboro Reds, they tweet their asses off, they go shooting in West Virginia, and they once had a reporter jump up on a desk and pull his pants down (no names on this one but you know who you are). And needless to say, they once threw their fearless fully-clothed leader, Tucker Carlson, into a swimming pool at the palatial mansion of Publisher Neil Patel.

There have been hard times, too. A firing with an ugly aftermath. Reporters leaving on bad terms. Ongoing fighting with Politico. Ill will with now BuzzFeed Political Editor Ben Smith — Carlson once wrote him, “The Daily Caller is ‘struggling’? What a ludicrous hack job, and stupid. Fuck you.” When asked about it, the editor replied, “I meant it with all sincerity.” Relations with Smith are still icy. Bringing on a Managing Editor with a rap sheet as long as the Nile — and having to explain it.

The Animal House rep comes through loud and clear in the colorful release sent out for the occasion by the brand new Hollywood-bred publicist Nicole Roeberg. In it, Carlson says, “We sent more reporters to Iowa and New Hampshire this month than all but a handful of long-established newspapers. We’re covering a lot of news, and we’re enjoying the hell out of it.”

Key Statistics (from the release):

·       Number of news stories filed on January 11, 2010: 18
·       Number of news stories filed on January 10, 2012: 33
·       Total number of unique visitors to DailyCaller.com since January 11, 2010: 36,2545,472
·       Number of opinion contributors to The Daily Caller: 1,568

Other noteworthy stats:

·       Number of beer kegs consumed from the office kegerator: 48
·       Number of boxes of Nicorette consumed: 3,823 (all by Tucker, except for 2 consumed by Neil)
·       Number of empty Mountain Dew bottles in the office at any given time: 26
·       Number of knees broken: 1

Happy Birthday to The Daily Caller!  As always, DC scribes, we’re only a click away so write us and spill your secrets.