When news broke last night that New York Times media columnist David Carr had died suddenly at just 58 years old, and the tributes started to pour in on Twitter, one voice was notably absent: Brian Stelter, who spent six years working along Carr in the paper’s media department before leaving to take over as host on CNN’s Reliable Sources.
According to one source within CNN, Stelter was mostly likely sleeping when the news started to spread and waiting until Friday morning to post his first messages online about the man he viewed as his “mentor” and even a father figure.
My heart is broken.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 13, 2015
This is how I'll remember @Carr2n. He looks like he's strangling me. He's actually about to kiss me on the cheek. pic.twitter.com/aITn7Inlro
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 13, 2015
I loved David so much. He's been the closest thing I had to a dad. About girls, bosses, life — he always knew what to say, what to do.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 13, 2015
RELATED: Watch David Carr’s Final Interview with Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden
Stelter shared his memories of Carr with Michaela Pereira on CNN’s New Day, saying, “He was the closest thing I had to a father in recent years.”
The pair famously appeared together in the 2011 documentary, Page One, which examined The New York Times through its media reporters. “I was this kid in the newsroom, frankly this terrified 22-year-old at The New York Times,” Stelter said of those years. “I thought someone like David Carr was a god.”
“I also thought he would ignore me at best and crush me at worst,” Stelter continued. “Well, in fact, he took me under his wing as he took so many young journalists under his wing and mentored us and instilled us a deep appreciation for all of the things we’ve been talking about in the past week: credibility and trust and voice in journalism.”
Watch video below, via CNN:
[Photo via screengrab]
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