The Daily Beast, Revealed: It's a Fish

You've probably been wondering: This Daily Beast I've been hearing so much about -- what sort of creature is it, exactly? Could I keep it as a pet? Would it be kosher to eat?

As it turns out, it's a close cousin to the mackerel.

At least that's what founder Tina Brown told Howard Kurtz on Reliable Sources today. "[T]here are so many sites out there that what I thought that the intelligent reader needed was a kind of pilot fish that would take them through this absolute sort of mass of data and Web sites and material and links and everything that's hurled at people morning, noon and night and give them like 10 smart things that they should read every day that are interesting and provocative, with no bias except whether or not its interesting," Brown told Kurtz by way of explaining the Beast's mission.

"So the site is as much about what isn't there as what is there."

In comparing her site to a pilot fish, Brown seemed to echo the folk wisdom of ancient sailors who believed that the creatures will lead a ship safely through treacherous waters. In fact, according to always-correct Wikipedia, it's the pilot fish that follows the ship (or, more commonly, the shark, ray or sea turtle) in hopes of scavenging scraps of food.

And speaking of questionable clichés that nevertheless persist, Brown seems to be taking to the supposed blogging lifestyle with gusto: She told Kurtz, "I spend a hell of a lot of time in my pajamas."