In his latest column, The New York Times’ David Carr takes on the bumbling CNN. Carr explains that Americans want the network to be the news station it claims to be. “We want CNN to be good, to be worthy of its moment,” writes Carr. But then, as we all noticed, it never can seem to do that. Carr goes through a few examples:

The biggest damage to CNN has been self-inflicted — never more so than in June, when in a rush to be first, it came running out of the Supreme Court saying that President Obama’s health care law had been overturned. It was a hugely embarrassing error.

On Wednesday at 1:45 p.m., the correspondent John King reported that a suspect had been arrested. It was a big scoop that turned out to be false.

Mr. King, a native of the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, was deeply sourced with local law enforcement officials, but people covering the story suggested those sources were out of the loop by Wednesday.

Throughout the week, I saw anchors and reporters staring at their phones, hoping a new nugget might arrive to give them something to say.

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The New York Times

David Carr‘s twin daughters Erin and Meagan turned 25 today.

“On this day a quarter of the century ago, my twin girls were born,” he tweeted. “Everything good started with them.”

Indeed,  the effect the twins had on his drug-addled life as a part-time reporter, part-time crackhead in Minneapolis in the late 1980s is well documented.

Here is part of an essay published in the New York Times Magazine, where Carr is the marquee media reporter and columnist, from 2008, just before his memoir “The Night of the Gun” was published:

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The whirlwind surrounding the New Republic continued last night as Chris Hughes, editor-in-chief and publisher of the magazine, threw a party to celebrate the glossy. Since those in the publishing business love nothing more than to hobnob with people just like them, there was a slew of big names in attendance.

Now you might be saying “I don’t care about yet another event full of media people congratulating themselves for being themselves” but we know you do! Otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this. So allow us to give you what you want, a list of people who went to Hughes’ shindig, via The Huffington Post.

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David Carr from The New York Times participated in a Reddit Ask Me Anything earlier today. In case you missed it, here are some of our favorite comments from Carr.

On the Times’ controversial decision to eliminate its environment desk:

We array and re-array reporters all the time. My bosses generally listen very closely for my opinions and then go the other way. I can tell you from my time in this room that energy/environment is a hugely consequential part of what we do. And lots of coverage areas that live btw desks without having one of their own frequently light up the front of the paper or the home page. Our editors up vote environmental stuff all the time.

His assessment of the Times’ paywall:

Win. All of the theologists of free said that we would disappear from the informational ecosystem and that did not end up to be true. Because it is a meter, because it is leaky — which is really a feature, not a flaw — and because social media links ride free, we’ve gotten serious money from people who want the convenience and access, and still maintained visibility.

On aggregation:

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David Carr, author and The New York Times’ media maven, is doing a Reddit Ask Me Anything today at 2 pm.

Carr’s last column dealt with the Journal News’ publishing of gun owners’ names and addresses, so maybe come prepared with questions on that. Or anything, as the title of the session indicates.

This is how low the bar is for Fox News: It gets praised when it acts like a normal news outlet. David Carr of The New York Times says that Fox News did a great thing after the presidential election, by simply reporting the facts:

On Tuesday night, the people in charge of Fox News were confronted with a stark choice after it became clear that Mr. Romney had fallen short: was Fox, first and foremost, a place for advocacy or a place for news? In this moment, at least, Fox chose news.

Congratulations Fox News! A media outlet reporting something that happened in life is an amazing feat. Carr goes on to say that when Karl Rove’s brain went haywire (although one could argue that this is his natural state) and he called Ohio’s results into question, Fox’s execs would not be deterred:

The best journalistic instincts of Fox’s news people kicked in and the hard reality of Mr. Obama’s triumph was allowed to land as it occurred. In doing so, the network avoided marginalizing itself and ended, at least for a night, its war on the president.

Yes, Fox News reported the news. It was truly an epic moment in media history. Raise your glass to the people at the network, because it might be awhile before you can do it again.

Here’s what we know about Felix Dennis — the eccentric owner of Dennis Publishing: He and his magazines are doing great. Well, at least the ones he once owned or currently owns, including The Week and Mental Floss. We know this because that’s what he tells David Carr of The New York Times, in an interview.

Dennis told Carr that there are a lot of haters out there, but that’s mainly because they’re jealous. “I have sold at the top of market several times,” explains Dennis. “Nobody remembers how long I’ve been at this. I love the media game. Love. It.”

The publisher then explained that his magazines are doing well because he understands everything better than everyone:

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FishbowlLA: Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane is hosting the Oscars. Can wait to hear unfunny jokes told in annoying voices!

AppNewser: The reviews are coming in for the Kindle Paperwhite. Verdict? It’s great! For all you enemies of the printed word who want to destroy small publishers forever.

TVNewser: David Carr, employee of a liberal leaning paper, says liberal leaning media is a myth.

David Carr of The New York Times has opinions on pretty much everything, and — because of his age and experience — a lot of the time those opinions blur the line between old media and new media.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Carr opens up about how he stays old and new at the same time. Below are some highlights, click through for the full piece. Also, after the jump, check out Carr on Mediabistro’s My First Big Break.

On Eventually Accepting Twitter:

I do think it’s very helpful in terms of having a human RSS – 600 people I follow, at least half of them I have intersecting professional interests, and I do think it puts me on tempo, in narrative, in a really important way.

On mixing old and new media:

I made a very conscious decision that – Am I an old media grampy pants or a new media avatar? And the answer is: I’m both.

On turning things over to experts:

I fight with Bruce Headlam, who’s my top editor, I’m always dumping quotes into my column and he says, ‘People care what you think, and a lot of times what I think is what they think. I’m not the kind of person who can just watch things going by and put a little extra sauce on it. I mean, I think I’m a good writer and a good thinker but my stuff always gets better with phone calls.

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