Sad. David Carr Died.
New York Times media columnist. Knew him from the alt weeklies, back when he was editor of Washington City Paper. Good guy and a writer and thinker always worth reading. Gregg knew him, too, from when Carr did a piece on Elmore Leonard -- ran all around Detroit with him and then shipped him his laptop when he left it at Elmore's.
Carr just yesterday published a great column on Jon Stewart and Brian Williams. No sooner did I read it than I saw a tweet about Carr being dead that I thought had to be some jerk's sick joke. It wasn't. From the obit NYT:
David Carr, who wrote about media as it intersects with business, culture and government in his Media Equation column for The New York Times, collapsed at the office and died at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital on Thursday. He was 58.For the past 25 years, Mr. Carr wrote about media. He joined The Times in 2002 as a business reporter covering the magazine publishing industry. His column appeared in the Monday business section and focused on media issues, including print, digital, film, radio and television.
Gregg and I were just talking about him the other day -- how he'd do a great piece on a story we know about. And now he's gone. Hard to get a grip on.
UPDATED: Here's his great piece about Andrew Breitbart. I knew Andrew -- once had a big argument about him over the Iraq War, after which we hugged and I told him to say hi to Susie [his wife] -- and this part about him was right on, and something few people knew about him:
He was conversant in pop culture -- the Cure and New Order were particular musical favorites -- and thought nothing of wearing in-line skates, his longish hair trailing behind him, as he confronted protesters at a rally outside a conservative event hosted by David and Charles Koch in Palm Springs, Calif., in 2011. Once he was done berating the protesters, he took some of them to dinner at Applebee's.
My twitter feed is weeping like a willow, but in 55 years of living, I've never once heard or read the name.
Journos are weirdly tribal.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at February 13, 2015 12:27 AM
Let's be clear: That Williams/Stewart piece is tripe.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at February 13, 2015 12:39 AM
He had, oh, 450,000+ Twitter followers, last I checked. You've been too busy baselessly criticizing my posts on Islam, Crid.
Amy Alkon at February 13, 2015 5:38 AM
The criticisms seem pretty well based when you never respond to them on point. I mean, I go through the things people say sentence-by-sentence, and word-by=word, but am lucky to get a single, flippant dismissal of the whole topic for a reply. (As in the present instance[s].)
There are certain figures in public life who'll you'll only think about if you daydream of having their jobs... And thus feel empowered to critique their handling of "your" position. This is how sports talk radio works. And it happens for everyone at the New York Times, including the janitorial staff.
Here's what I figured out from reading the Williams/Stewart piece this morning: A big part of a journo's fascination with the New York Times is that the job allows you to take naked pleasure from explaining blindingly obvious things to the little people, under a pretense that perhaps the reader has been too busy trading stocks or sailing Antigua to have been paying attention to the subject. You've been busy with your seasonal preparations to follow the PGA tour on your Lear jet, right? How could you be expected to know who John Stewart is? He's from *television*, my friend... That's the one with the *picture*.
Journalists are needy people.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at February 13, 2015 8:21 AM
Not bad... Yet as always with the New York Times, one wonders if it's literally true.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at February 13, 2015 8:35 AM
All I can say is Stewart destroyed the Daily Show for me. His blatant partisanship and hypocrisy made it unwatchable. He is just like Bill O'Reilly but for the dems.
Ben at February 13, 2015 9:37 AM
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