 | The factual accuracy of part of this article isdisputed. The dispute is aboutthe lack of substantive career content other than the NYT affiliation (i.e., exclusion of his Washington City Paper and Twin Cities Reader editorships, leading to discrepancies with those and other WP articles). Please help to ensure that disputed statements arereliably sourced. See the relevant discussion on thetalk page.(January 2026) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
David Carr | |
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 Carr at the 2013PuSh International Performing Arts Festival atCapilano University inNorth Vancouver, British Columbia, February 2013 | |
| Born | David Michael Carr (1956-09-08)September 8, 1956 Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died | February 12, 2015(2015-02-12) (aged 58) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | University of Wisconsin–River Falls University of Minnesota |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1980s–2015 |
| Employer | The New York Times |
| Spouses |
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| Children | 3, includingErin Lee Carr |
David Michael Carr (September 8, 1956 – February 12, 2015) was an American columnist, author, and newspaper editor. He wrote a column, Media Equation and covered culture forThe New York Times.[1]
David Michael Carr was born on September 8, 1956[3] inMinneapolis, to Joan Laura Carr (née O'Neill), a local community leader, and John Lawrence Carr.[3][4] David had three brothers and three sisters[4] and grew up inMinnetonka, a suburb. He attended theUniversity of Wisconsin–River Falls and theUniversity of Minnesota; he graduated from the latter with a degree in psychology and journalism.[2][5][6]
Carr joined the short-lived media news websiteInside.com.[7] He wrote extensively about the media forThe Atlantic Monthly andNew York.[8]
Carr joinedThe New York Times in 2002, where he was a cultural reporter and wroteThe New York Times Carpetbagger blog.[9] He remained atThe New York Times until his death.[8][10] In his 2008 memoir,The Night of the Gun, he detailed his experiences withcocaine addiction and included interviews with people from his past, tackling the telling of his experiences as if he were reporting about himself.[11] The memoir was excerpted inThe New York Times Magazine.[12]
Carr was featured prominently in the 2011 documentaryPage One: Inside the New York Times, where he was shown interviewing staff fromVice, whom Carr called out for their lack of journalistic knowledge.[13][14] The article aboutVice was noteworthy for its clear depiction of the conflict between new online journalism and traditional journalism.[15]
In 2014, he was named the Lack Professor of Media Studies atBoston University, a part-time position where he taught a journalism class calledPress Play: Making and distributing content in the present future.[16][17]
Carr and his first wife, Kimberly, divorced in 1986.[18][better source needed] In 1988, he had twin daughters, Erin and Meagan, with his partner Anna Lee,[12] but the couple would lose custody of them, leaving them infoster care until Carr's completingdrug rehabilitation allowed him to regain custody;[12]Erin would go on todirectdocumentary films.[citation needed] He married his second wife, Jill L. Rooney, in 1994;[19][better source needed] they had a daughter, Maddie.[20] As of 2011, Carr lived inMontclair, New Jersey with his wife and three daughters.[20]
In interview with Terry Gross onFresh Air, Carr described himself as a church-goingCatholic.[21]
In 2011, Carr described himself as having previously battledHodgkin's lymphoma, and reported developing his hoarse speaking voice during his coverage of the aftermath of theSeptember 11 attacks.[21] At around 9 p.m.EST on February 12, 2015, Carr collapsed in the newsroom ofThe New York Times and was pronounced dead atMount Sinai Roosevelt Hospital; he was 58 years of age.[2][22][23] The cause of death waslung cancer, with heart disease listed as a contributing factor.[24][25]
In September 2015,The New York Times announced a fellowship in his name which would be dedicated to fostering the growth and development of journalists.[26] The first three fellowship recipients, chosen by a panel of Times editors from among more than 600 applicants, were John Herrman, a co-editor and media reporter for The Awl; Amanda Hess, a staff writer atSlate; and Greg Howard, a reporter forDeadspin.[27]
In 2016, a David Carr Prize for Emerging Writers atSXSW was presented to author Jaime Boust. The piece will cover what is exciting (or unnerving) about life in the coming years in 2,000 words or less.[28]
Carr was a mentor for the writerTa-Nehisi Coates, who said in 2019: "I couldn't imagine myself as a writer if I had not met David Carr. David Carr was the first person who ever believed in me."[29] Carr was credited for launchingLena Dunham's career and was described byGawker's John Koblin as the "Daddy" of TV seriesGirls.[30] A character in the TV seriesThe Girls on the Bus is partially based on Carr.[31]
[Mr. Carr] joined the Times in 2002 as a business reporter... / Before joining the Times, [he] was a contributing writer for the Atlantic Monthly and New York magazine. He also was a media writer for news website Inside.com. / Mr. Carr served as editor of the Washington City Paper, an alternative weekly in Washington, D.C. He also was editor of a Minneapolis-based alternative weekly called Twin Cities Reader.
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