David Carr, a Journalist at the Center of the Sweet Spot

For a while, a few years ago, there was a weekly video on the New York Times website called The Sweet Spot, taped during off hours in the cafeteria on the 14th floor. The idea was that it would be an informal, incisive discussion of various developments in the world of culture and media. Sometimes it managed to live up to its name, and sometimes it didn’t, but for me the show — or webcast, or schmooze fest, or whatever it was — had a much simpler reason for being: It guaranteed that I would have a few hours a week in the company of David Carr. For anyone who cared about journalism, there was simply no better place to be.

David’s public contribution to the profession — his columns and feature stories, his interviews and investigations — is part of the record, and part of the glory of this newspaper. He covered every corner of the media business (including, sometimes, his own employer) with analytical acumen, ethical rigor and gumshoe tenacity.

But it was also fitting. David was our champion: the best we had and also the one who would go out into the world every week to make the case for what we do. He understood better than anyone how hard the job can be, how lonely, how confusing, how riddled with the temptations of cynicism and compromise. And yet he could make it look so easy, and like the most fun you could ever hope to have.

A version of this article appears in print on February 13, 2015, on page B11 of the New York edition with the headline: A Journalist at the Center of the Sweet Spot. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe

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