David Carr, the sharp-witted and often sharp-tongued "The Media Equation" columnist for The New York Times, collapsed in that paper's newsroom and was pronounced dead at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Thursday night, The Times reports. He was 58.
The exact cause of death has yet to be determined.
"David Carr was one of the most gifted journalists who has ever worked at The New York Times," his publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., said in a statement. "He combined formidable talent as a reporter with acute judgment to become an indispensable guide to modern media. But his friends at The Times and beyond will remember him as a unique human being – full of life and energy, funny, loyal and lovable."
Carr, who also wrote for The Atlantic and New York magazine before joining The Times, had just returned to his office Thursday after moderating a discussion in Manhattan on the Oscar-nominated documentary Citizenfour, about the fugitive former intelligence operative Edward Snowden. With Carr on the panel were journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras as well as, via satellite, Snowden.
Carr began at The Times as a business reporter in 2002 and initiated the paper's "Carpetbagger" column, about the awards season red carpet.
In 2008, he published a critically hailed memoir, The Night of the Gun, candidly and poetically detailing his struggles with – and later recovery from – crack cocaine addiction.
He was a native of Minneapolis, where his father owned men’s clothing stores and his mother taught school, and he majored in psychology and journalism at the University of Minnesota, said The Times.
Before coming to New York, he was the editor of the alternative Washington City Paper, a weekly in D.C., and from 1993 to 1995, as its editor and media columnist, he worked for the Minneapolis-based alternative weekly Twin Cities Reader.
"And though he could be critical of people in the profession (and in the building) who he suspected of laziness or logrolling," colleague and Times critic A.O. Scott wrote in an appreciation of Carr, "he could shine a dazzling light on anyone he thought was doing the job well."
In his own words, Carr said, to graduating journalism students at UC Berkeley last year, "Being a journalist, I never feel bad talking to journalism students because it's a grand, grand caper. You get to leave, go talk to strangers, ask them anything, come back, type up their stories, edit the tape. That's not gonna retire your loans as quickly as it should, and it's not going to turn you into a person who's worried about what kind of car they should buy, but that's kind of as it should be. I mean, it beats working."
His death comes in a week heavy with stories about the media and only one day after veteran CBS newsman Bob Simon, 73, was killed in a car crash in Manhattan. On Tuesday, NBC announced it was suspending its biggest news star, Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, for six months without pay over questions about his veracity regarding stories he covered, and Jon Stewart announced he was stepping down as host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show after 17 years.
The Times said Carr is survived by his wife, Jill Rooney Carr, who is the international operations manager for Shake Shack, and daughters Maddie, Erin and Meagan.
As Sulzberger also said of Carr, he was "an irreplaceable talent [who] will be missed by everyone who works for The Times and everyone who reads it."
The exact cause of death has yet to be determined.
"David Carr was one of the most gifted journalists who has ever worked at The New York Times," his publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., said in a statement. "He combined formidable talent as a reporter with acute judgment to become an indispensable guide to modern media. But his friends at The Times and beyond will remember him as a unique human being – full of life and energy, funny, loyal and lovable."
Carr, who also wrote for The Atlantic and New York magazine before joining The Times, had just returned to his office Thursday after moderating a discussion in Manhattan on the Oscar-nominated documentary Citizenfour, about the fugitive former intelligence operative Edward Snowden. With Carr on the panel were journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras as well as, via satellite, Snowden.
Carr began at The Times as a business reporter in 2002 and initiated the paper's "Carpetbagger" column, about the awards season red carpet.
In 2008, he published a critically hailed memoir, The Night of the Gun, candidly and poetically detailing his struggles with – and later recovery from – crack cocaine addiction.
He was a native of Minneapolis, where his father owned men’s clothing stores and his mother taught school, and he majored in psychology and journalism at the University of Minnesota, said The Times.
Before coming to New York, he was the editor of the alternative Washington City Paper, a weekly in D.C., and from 1993 to 1995, as its editor and media columnist, he worked for the Minneapolis-based alternative weekly Twin Cities Reader.
"And though he could be critical of people in the profession (and in the building) who he suspected of laziness or logrolling," colleague and Times critic A.O. Scott wrote in an appreciation of Carr, "he could shine a dazzling light on anyone he thought was doing the job well."
In his own words, Carr said, to graduating journalism students at UC Berkeley last year, "Being a journalist, I never feel bad talking to journalism students because it's a grand, grand caper. You get to leave, go talk to strangers, ask them anything, come back, type up their stories, edit the tape. That's not gonna retire your loans as quickly as it should, and it's not going to turn you into a person who's worried about what kind of car they should buy, but that's kind of as it should be. I mean, it beats working."
Of all the cats, David Carr was the coolest. He will be missed.
— Seth Meyers (@sethmeyers) February 13, 2015 His death comes in a week heavy with stories about the media and only one day after veteran CBS newsman Bob Simon, 73, was killed in a car crash in Manhattan. On Tuesday, NBC announced it was suspending its biggest news star, Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, for six months without pay over questions about his veracity regarding stories he covered, and Jon Stewart announced he was stepping down as host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show after 17 years.
The Times said Carr is survived by his wife, Jill Rooney Carr, who is the international operations manager for Shake Shack, and daughters Maddie, Erin and Meagan.
As Sulzberger also said of Carr, he was "an irreplaceable talent [who] will be missed by everyone who works for The Times and everyone who reads it."