Mitch PerryMy TweetDeck was filled with comments of respect for David Carr around 1:30 a.m. this morning. I had turned to it immediately after reading of his shocking death on the website of his beloved New York Times.
Eric Deggans has called him the finest media reporter of his generation, and he was that, and a whole lot more.
There are people in this business who you wished you could write as well as. He was one of them for me.
I never met the man (who was only 58), but was lucky enough to be in the audience at the Poynter Institute in June of 2012, where he gave a speech called,”How Not to Get Squished When the Media Techtonic Plates and Paradigms Shift,” that was very inspiring. That was the thing with that guy.
“You gotta talk to the people you’re here with,” he began, telling the audience to get their heads out of their smartphones and appreciate real (i.e. non-digital) life. “Don’t be be so busy producing media that you don’t take any in,” said the ultimate in the know media person.
As you will no doubt have read about, Carr died in the offices of the Times sometime after 9 p.m. Thursday night, just after he had moderated a “Times Talks” conversation with Edward Snowden, director Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald about the documentary “Citizenfour,” the Oscar nominated documentary about Snowden’s revelations (I suspect Snowden was there via Skype).
Lots of folks have written that this has been a “horrible week of journalism,” and by that they were referring to the death of 60 Minutes reporter Bob Simon on Wednesday night, they’re right. But let’s remove Brian Williams and Jon Stewart from that list, can we? Those 50-something New York media stars are freakin’ alive, for one thing, and, it’s just not the same thing as David Carr dying at 58. It’s just not.
Bob Simon’s tragic car accident death reminds me of another journalism giant, David Halberstam, who died in a car crash going to give a speech in Berkeley at the age of 73. Simon was 72. These guys were still very much in the prime of their careers, who had so much to give.
I learned earlier this week that a former roommate of mine named Frankie Bishop, who has been living in Thailand for the past 15 years, died of an apparent heart attack last summer at the age of 51. So much death. As Dave Weigel wrote, life is short, but it’s not supposed to be that short.
Okay, have a good weekend.
In other news..
The Koch Brothers financed Americans for Prosperity is flooding the zone with their messaging against tax incentives for sports stadiums and Hollywood productions. AFP is now airing a radio ad in over 50 media markets in the state, imploring citizens to contact their legislators and tell them to just say no to tax incentive packages being proposed in the upcoming session.
We don’t want to be annoying,but are you aware that there’s a municipal election in Tampa in 18 days? Kent King is running an uphill battle to oust incumbent Harry Cohen in the District 4 Council race next month, and on Wednesday he threw out some rhetorical bombs Cohen’s way.
And the group getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by Hillsborough County to elicit comment from the masses about what they want in terms of transit options begins their series of town hall meetings next week. The self-described “listening tour” kicks off in West Tampa.
