David Carr (journalist)

David Michael Carr was born on September 8, 1956^[3] in Minneapolis, 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 in Minnetonka, a suburb. He attended the University of Wisconsin–River Falls and the University of Minnesota; he graduated from the latter with a degree in psychology and journalism.^[2][5][6]

Carr joined the short-lived media news website Inside.com.^[7] He wrote extensively about the media for The Atlantic Monthly and New York.^[8]

Carr joined The New York Times in 2002, where he was a cultural reporter and wrote The New York Times Carpetbagger blog.^[9] He remained at The New York Times until his death.^[8][10] In his 2008 memoir, The Night of the Gun, he detailed his experiences with cocaine 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 in The New York Times Magazine.^[12]

Carr was featured prominently in the 2011 documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times, where he was shown interviewing staff from Vice, whom Carr called out for their lack of journalistic knowledge.^[13][14] The article about Vice 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 at Boston University, a part-time position where he taught a journalism class called Press 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 in foster care until Carr's completing drug rehabilitation allowed him to regain custody;^[12] Erin would go on to direct documentary 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 in Montclair, New Jersey with his wife and three daughters.^[20]

In interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, Carr described himself as a church-going Catholic.^[21]

In 2011, Carr described himself as having previously battled Hodgkin's lymphoma, and reported developing his hoarse speaking voice during his coverage of the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.^[21] At around 9 p.m. EST on February 12, 2015, Carr collapsed in the newsroom of The New York Times and was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Roosevelt Hospital; he was 58 years of age.^[2][22][23] The cause of death was lung 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 at Slate; and Greg Howard, a reporter for Deadspin.^[27]

In 2016, a David Carr Prize for Emerging Writers at SXSW 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 writer Ta-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 launching Lena Dunham's career and was described by Gawker's John Koblin as the "Daddy" of TV series Girls.^[30] A character in the TV series The Girls on the Bus is partially based on Carr.^[31]

• The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life, His Own. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008. ISBN 978-1-416-54152-3.

• 2008: Book Discussion on The Night of the Gun, Olssen's Books & Records, Washington, D.C., "Book TV," C-SPAN 2. September 17, 2008.^[32]
• 2011: Page One: Inside the New York Times documentary film
• 2013: IAmA columnist and reporter on media and culture for the New York Times^[33] Reddit interview
• 2014: Commencement Address to the UC Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism Class of 2014^[34]

• TPI Staff (February 13, 2015). "David Carr, 58, Noted Columnist on Media" (obituary). The Philadelphia Inquirer (TPI; Inquirer.com). Archived from the original on October 4, 2022. Retrieved January 7, 2026. [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.
• Madden, Mike (February 13, 2015). "How City Paper Remembers David Carr" (memoir piece with autobiographical vignettes). Washington City Paper. Retrieved January 7, 2026. Madden introduces and edits together autobiographical recollections of the David Carr's WCP interactions with Jake Tapper, Guy Raz, Jelani Cobb, Erik Wemple, and others.