David Carr’s Dirge and Paean to Media“For every kid that I bump into who is wandering the media industry looking for an entrance that closed some time ago, I come across another who is a bundle of ideas, energy and technological mastery.”
The Bagger Bags BaleDavid Carr’s got a theory on why Christian Bale growled so much in ‘The Dark Knight’.
ByMark Graham
love
The New York Times Reveals Huge Crush on Anne HathawayIn yesterday’s ‘Times’ Academy Awards section, the paper’s movie critics ostensibly make an Oscar case for some of their favorite films, but mostly they just try to score with Hathaway.
The Carpetbagger ReturnsHe’s sorta like the Punxsutawney Phil of the Oscar season, only more prolific in his forecasting and with a slightly less furry exterior.
Rush & Molloy Still Believe Rupert and Hillary Can Make It, Carr Not As MuchToday in the Daily News, Rush & Molloy attempt to make the case that News Corp. overlord Rupert Murdoch is still on Team Hillary, despite the fact that his New York Post endorsed Barack Obama last week and trashed her in the process. “When it comes to putting money down, Murdoch poured $2,300 – the maximum allowed for a primary race – into her campaign six months ago,” the husband-and-wife duo point out. “He gave Obama nothing.” But the key phrase in that sentence seems to be “six months ago.” Public statements of editorial independence aside, the Post simply doesn’t do anything that Rupert Murdoch doesn’t want it to do. The official policy of loathing Senator Clinton was reiterated even today, with a masthead editorial attacking both her and her husband. David Carr, in today’s Times, seems to see the issue more clearly:
[Clinton] never once appeared before [the Post’s editorial board — a customary act of tribute by local politicians — and her lack of deference was duly noted by the paper’s leadership
ink-stained wretches
Kissing David Carr’s CheeksLike the fat kid whose house is stocked with candy and Wii games or the unpopular girl with the hot older brothers or, you know, Ally Hilfiger, David Carr sometimes feels like people don’t love him for who he is but what he can give them. “Sometimes when I go places I feel like a really big deal — but I wonder how big of a deal I’d be if my last name wasn’t New York Times,” he says in today’s New York Observer’s feature about journalists branding themselves. “I’m not addicted to that, but I’m ever mindful. When people are kissing me on both cheeks, one of those cheeks says New York Times.” Ummmmm. Seriously, dude? You got the New York Times tattooed on your ass? We hate to be the ones to tell you this, but we don’t think that’s what Bill Keller meant when he told you to go out there and brand yourself.
Fame and Obscurity at the New York Times [NYO]
company town
Introducing Goldman CFO David ‘Bones’ ViniarFINANCE
• Meet David “Bones” Viniar, the reclusive Goldman CFO who’s quadrupled profits in the last eight years. A graduate of Bronx Science, he sits at the top, surveying his domain, as CEOs come and go. [Financial News via DealBook/NYT]
• Stephen Feinberg’s Cerberus is clearly the hedge fund’s hedge fund: to help finance the firm’s acquisition of Chrysler, Feinberg roped in $100 million from at least four other top firms — and made them pay for the privilege. [Deal Journal/WSJ] • Another sign that we’re in the wrong business: Henry Kravis managed to ink an $8 billion buy-out, later back out of the deal, and then even got his bankers to step up and pay the penalties. [MarketBeat/WSJ]
the follow-up
The Last Week in Minor MisunderstandingsWe wouldn’t go so far as to say we’ve been wrong. But, by the same token, there have been a few times in the last seven days we weren’t entirely right. How so? Well, we’ve got a Brooklyn border dispute, a misreading of what we’d call a confusingly written article, and a perhaps overbroad — but, still, we’ll insist, substantively correct — critique of some recent media criticism. We’ll explain after the jump.
intel
Who Moved David Carr’s ‘Observer’?Take a walk with us through today’s headlines on Jim Romenesko’s invaluable media-news roundup, won’t you? It’s the day after the New York Observer introduced its drastically different, long-tabloid design, part of new owner and publisher Jared Kushner’s plan to turn the paper into something slightly different and perhaps even profitable. On Romenesko’s site, you’ve got Steve Rattner, once a Times reporter and now a gazillionaire financier, writing in The Wall Street Journal about how the news business must come up with new models if it is to survive and thrive. (New models, like the Observer is introducing!)
in other news
David Carr Loves You, Joel Stein Does Not
Do you agree with David Carr’s Golden Globe predictions? Believe he’s right that Scorsese will win for best director? Well, let the man know what you think already. He’s just twiddling his thumbs waiting for your feedback. Or so it seems from today’s media column on Carr’s obsession with the comments on his Carpetbagger blog. “Now I have become a day trader, jacked in to my computer and trading by the second in my most precious commodity: me,” he writes. “How do they like me now? What about … now? Hmmmm … Now?” We’re moved by Carr’s extreme concern, perhaps even more so because we’ve just been jilted by a certain West Coast writer.
In a (now-much-blogged-about) January 2 column in the Los Angeles Times, Joel Stein asked readers to do him a favor and not e-mail him: “I get that you have opinions you want to share. That’s great. You’re the Person of the Year. I just don’t have any interest in them A lot of e-mail screeds argue that, in return for the privilege of broadcasting my opinion, I have the responsibility to listen to you. I don’t. No more than you have a responsibility to read me. I’m not an elected servant.”
Compare this to Carr’s description of his rapport with a frequent commenter who went traveling: “I sort of missed him. I dropped him a note and then called him in Israel about being off the grid (in particular, my grid).”
Why the sharp contrast in attitude? Could our journalists’ keen interest in readers’ opinions be another Reason to Love New York? Do you think so? We want to know! — Lori Fradkin
24-Hour Newspaper People [NYT]
Have Something to Say? I Don’t Care [LAT]