Friday, February 13, 2015

Paramedics tried, failed to resuscitate NYT’s David Carr

By Jamie Schram and Beckie Strum

February 13, 2015 | 1:53pm

Paramedics tried, failed to resuscitate NYT’s David Carr

Photo: Getty Images

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Paramedics called to The New York Times tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate David Carr, the paper’s influential media columnist who died Thursday, after he collapsed on the newsroom floor.

A co-worker — who spoke to Carr in a meeting a mere 30 minutes prior — found the 58-year-old journalist near his cubicle at the paper’s Midtown headquarters at about 9 p.m. and performed CPR on the unconscious journalist, law-enforcement sources told The Post.

Emergency responders also tried to revive Carr before he was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Authorities at the scene suspected he died of a heart attack, sources said, but the official cause of death hasnot been announced.

Carr — a slim man whom the Times described in its obit as “storklike” — also suffered from diabetes and took insulin shots to manage the disease, authorities said.

On Friday afternoon, hundreds of Times staffers left their keyboards and gathered at the heart of the newsroom to remember Carr.

Executive Editor Dean Baquet, who dubbed him “the finest media reporter of his generation,” gave a closing rallying call in Carr’s honor.

“Go report and have fun,” Baquet said, according to the Times’ Twitter account.

The wisecracking Carr, who wrote a book about overcoming a crack cocaine addiction, rose from rock bottom to become a leading authority on the shifting state of the media industry.

His Media Equation column focused on issues of media in relation to business, culture and government.

A wake for Carr has been scheduled for Monday night at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on Madison Avenue. His funeral will be held Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue.