In this Nov. 21, 2011, file photo, New York Times journalist David Carr poses for a photograph as he arrives for the French premiere of the documentary “Page One: A Year Inside The New York Times,” in Paris. Carr collapsed at the office and died in a hospital Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015. He was 58. Carr wrote the Media Equation column for the Times, focusing on issues of media in relation to business and culture. © AP photo by Michel Euler.
This may be somewhat inside baseball-ish, and for that, I apologize. But I did want to take a moment this morning to remember the most inspiring journalist I have followed this century, New York Times media critic David Carr.
Carr, who collapsed last night in the Times newsroom and was later pronounced dead at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, first came to my attention as the Times’ awards-season correspondent, The Carpetbagger. It was a must-read stop for those of us who have an unhealthy interest in the Academy Awards and other self-congratulatory Hollywood contests. It was a multimedia reporting experience that combined insightful and informative journalism with Carr’s huge personality and trademark gravely voice.
That drew me to Carr’s far more vast portfolio, particularly after he left the red carpets and drilled down on media, culture and journalism today in his Media Equation column.
To his credit are meticulous analyses of the changing media landscape, searing critiques of flat-footed business models and visionary writing about the roles of social media and other emerging media. Just this past week, he wrote a terrific column about the news anchor culture that helped fuel the deceptions that led NBC News to suspend anchor Brian Williams without pay.
And then there was his incredible book, Night of the Gun, an investigation into his own drug addiction and it’s consequences. It colored all that he did with the perspective of someone who knows all about failure and redemption.
But what I found really inspiring was that in this field, particularly newspapers, where there is a bit of tendency to grouse about how new media is eating our lunch, Carr was embracing it; consuming it, using it, acknowledging his shortcomings but then just saying they were things to overcome. I have this distinct memory of him describing his early efforts at video as looking like hostage recordings. But he worked at it and grew.
“We are entering a golden age of journalism,” Carr told NPR’s Terry Gross in a 2011 interview on Fresh Air. “I do think there has been horrible frictional costs, but I think when we look back at what has happened, I look at my backpack that is sitting here, and it contains more journalistic firepower than the entire newsroom that I walked into 30 to 40 years ago. It’s connected to the cloud, I can make digital recordings of everything that I do, I can check in real time if someone is telling me the truth, I have a still camera that takes video that I can upload quickly and seamlessly.”
I remember listening to that interview twice in one day while traveling between Christmas and New Year’s and desperately wanting to get back to the newsroom and acting on this flood of inspiration. Not only was he a fierce critic of media, particularly some corporate structures which have rewarded executives while gutting their products, but he was a fierce defender of the role it plays in informing and illuminating the public. And he thought it was a great job.
In a letter to his staff last night, Times executive editor Dean Baquet wrote Carr, “was our biggest champion, and his unending passion for journalism and for truth will be missed by his family at The Times, by his readers around the world and by people who love journalism.”
And he is absolutely right.
