Page One: Inside the New York Times

Where do you get your news?  Hopefully azfamily.com and 3TV are at the top of your list.  It’s a question I would have no trouble answering with a plethora of sources…unlike a stammering candidate I don’t even need to name.

Everyone can agree that the days of getting breaking news by way of your local newspaper are long gone.  The irony of seeing a preview for “Page One:  Inside the New York Times” on the very day that The Arizona Republic had significant layoffs was not lost on this audience member.  Newspapers, like TV news, are fighting for their lives with every issue and every newscast.  How newspapers and more precisely, how the venerable New York Times will survive is central to the documentary that takes you inside the daily grind of putting out ‘the beast’.

When I first got the invite to see “Page One:  Inside the NYT” I did not hesitate for one minute to make my reservation.  I will always remember the first time I saw an issue. It was a revelation on what a big city newspaper had to offer.  Now, here was a chance to go inside a highly respected institution and see how it ticked.  I was not disappointed.  The documentary gives a brief overview of the paper’s history but concentrates on the issue of how a business built on dead trees will survive in a paperless world.

We meet some of the players but only one emerges as a total superstar:  journalist David Carr.  His NYT bio lists his various positions at numerous papers over the years.  Currently, Carr is a columnist for the Monday Business section.  While his primary focus is media issues, including print, digital, film, radio and television, he also covers pop culture. 

But I think he secretly wears a cape on the side and most definitely bleeds ink!  There’s no question Carr’s not only fighting for his livelihood but for a business he loves dearly and believes with all his heart and soul are worth fighting for.  After seeing “Page One:  Inside the NYT”, I want to fight with him.  He is feisty, fearless, tenacious and amazingly quick witted for a guy who comes across as having lost more than a few brain cells in his self-confessed drugged out past.

While Carr’s passion is palpable, it is a healthy respect for the work of true journalism that one walks away with after seeing “Page One:  Inside the NYT”.  While bloggers everywhere might be quick to spread the word online and with Twitter and Face book, it’s boots on the ground that get the real work of digging, fact finding and most importantly attribution done.  It’s a job best left to the professionals as Carr is quick to point out to hipsters at Vice Magazine and the rep from aggregate site newser.  Watching Carr rip into the guys from Vice was hilariously salty!  But embracing these cyber upstarts could be the very key to prints survival as is illustrated by a recent successful collaboration with WikiLeaks.  The intrigue behind the scenes of that joint venture was fascinating and fun to watch unfold.

Breaking news on dead trees might be uncool but the real work of investigative journalism will be what saves papers like the New York Times and our own Arizona Republic.  And in corrupt times like these, we need these bold journalists and their well worn boots more than ever.  Bravo Ladies and Gentlemen.  Bravo!