David Carr, Nationally Renowned New York Times Media Critic, Montclair Resident, Dies

David Carr, a New York Times reporter and columnist who rose from the depths of drug addiction to become who many considered the preeminent media critic of his generation, died Thursday after collapsing in the newsroom of The New York Times. He was 58 and lived in Montclair.

Carr, who joined the paper in 2002 and wrote The Media Equation column, was known for his commentary on a variety of media topics ranging from the controversies involving NBC’s Tonight Show to the changing digital landscape.

“He had two qualities you don’t often find in the same person,’’ said Patch Editor-In-Chief Warren St. John. “He was both deeply skeptical and relentlessly humane.”

St. John worked with Carr at The Times for six years, and had been friends with him ever since. The two men had coffee together last week.

On Sunday, Carr wrote a column about Brian Williams, the NBC anchor suspended six months for lying, called “Brian Williams, Retreading Memories From a Perch Too Public.” He wrote:

“We want our anchors to be everywhere, to be impossibly famous, globe-trotting, hilarious, down-to-earth, and above all, trustworthy. It’s a job description that no one can match.”

Carr’s life was complex. He survived his battle with drug abuse before joining the Times. In his memoir, “The Night of the Gun,” he wrote about his drug problem and his battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

In his New York Times review of the book, Bruce Handy described the state of Carr’s life in the 1980s:

“Back in the 1980s, when he was a reporter for an alternative weekly in Minneapolis and later for a local business monthly, Carr had a cocaine problem that spiraled downward from snorting to smoking to injecting. He also drank too much, did some low-level dealing and was arrested innumerable times. He did worse things, too...”

The Times reported this about Carr’s addiction and his road to recovery:

By 2008, he could look back and write: “Today I am a genuine, often pleasant person, I do solid work for a reputable organization and have, over the breadth of time, proved to be an attentive father and husband.”

Carr collapsed in the Times newsroom shortly before 9 p.m. and was taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the Times reported.

Dean Baquet, The Times’s executive editor, informed staff members of Carr’s death in an email on Thursday night.

Carr, he wrote, “was the finest media reporter of his generation, a remarkable and funny man who was one of the leaders of our newsroom.

“He was our biggest champion, and his unending passion for journalism and for truth will be missed by his family at The Times, by his readers around the world and by people who love journalism.”

Carr was born and raised in Minnesota, graduated from the University of Minnesota, and worked for the Twin Cities Reader and the Washington City Paper before moving to New York, the Times reported.

He is survived by his wife, Jill Rooney Carr; his daughters, Maddie, Erin and Meagan; and several siblings, Jim, John Jr., Joe, Missy and Lisa, according to the Times.