David Carr on tweeting, his lawn/weed problem, and his clout (plus more links)
New York Times media writer David Carr talks to the Globe and Mail’s Simon Houpt. A few quotes from Carr:
— “If my name was David Schmeckler and not David ‘New York Times,’ I don’t think people would care all that much what I had to say. …When you work for the Times, you should never get confused about why an event sells out, or why people race to pick up your phone calls.”
— “The fact that I’ve tweeted or retweeted 20,000 times – that’s a source of shame to me. I mean, what did I tweet last night? …I think the person who actually originally talked me into tweeting was Kurt Andersen, and he said: It’s like, you’re working on something and you need a break, and wanna’ have a cigarette and you do a tweet instead.”
— “I don’t want to be seen as some gossamer creature of Manhattan media life – because I’m not. I’m really worried about my lawn, there’s a big weed problem right now.”
— Houpt: A few months ago there was a blog post which suggested you’re the ultimate insider who, as this writer had it, may have lost a sense of true north. Carr: “I think it was CJR – ‘The two David Carrs’? That thing? Yeah, it was one of those moments: Was it worse that they said it, or worse that part of it was true? The case-building that went with it – the one thing in it that got me going was, the writer said I didn’t even try to find out if Huffington Post made money and that’s a dead-wrong assumption.”
* David Carr and journalism: old-media grampypants vs. new-media avatar. (theglobeandmail.com)
More links:
* Newspaper covers the EPA while taking money from the agency. (washingtonguardian.com)
* Is this USA Today’s new logo? (gannettblog.com) | A grim prediction for the paper. (editorandpublisher.com)
* USC lifts ban on Los Angeles Daily News football writer. (shermanreport.com)
* Since last summer, Detroit Free Press has lost 20 staffers — and it’s about to lose 22 more. (deadlinedetroit.com)
* Claim: Everyone in Madison is talking about a story that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel won’t cover. (urbanmilwaukee.com)
* Kansas City Chiefs apologize after insulting fan on Twitter. (sports.yahoo.com)
* Judge throws out defamation/invasion of privacy lawsuit against The Wrap. (thewrap.com)
* New York Times explains why quote was taken out of Romney story. (politico.com)
* Charles Eisendrath: “Rupertism isn’t about conservative politics … it’s about strong journalism.” (theatlantic.com)
* Bill Grueskin writes an open letter to Journal Register boss John Paton. (cjr.org)
* NYT’s Nick Kristof looks for stories that will make Americans spill their coffee when they read them. (theeagleonline.com)
* Answers.com CEO discusses his failed About.com deal and losing to Barry Diller. (bizjournals.com)