In an appearance on “The Colbert Report,” Tuesday night, New York Times media writer David Carr said the story of News Corp. is just beginning, not ending. But first, he answered questions about his own news organization when Colbert asked how The New York Times is doing.
Carr: We’re doing better. We paid back that big Mexican billionaire early. … Our ads have stabilized. We’ve pulled up to our customers on the Internet and if they stop by 20 times we give them a little notice and say, ‘How’s about giving us some sugar here?’ …
Colbert: So the grey lady has turned into the painted harlot?
Carr: That’s part of the brand repositioning.
Colbert then asked Carr about the phone-hacking scandal and how it’s being covered.
Colbert: Shouldn’t you non-Murdoch papers have to recuse yourself from this story? Because you can’t be objective.
Carr: Do the math. You’ve got a $40 million big blob of media that owns Fox News, Fox Sports, New York Post, Wall Street Journal, they closed a 160-year-old newspaper, and they’re run by an 80-year-old guy who almost got hit in Parliament by a pie in the face, and he was saved by his hot Chinese wife. I mean, that’s a great story.
Colbert: But isn’t it much ado about nothing? How bad a deal is it to hack people’s phones? That’s journalism. How do you know what the truth of a story is unless you’re willing to do anything? Ed Murrow said, “By any means necessary.”
Carr: Right. I don’t think he meant hacking into a 13-year-old murder victim’s phone and deleting voice mail.
Colbert asked Carr whether Murdoch has been “punished enough.”
Carr: He apologized for everything and took responsibility for nothing. … In terms of where it ends, what actually happens, I think we’re at the start of this story and not the end of this story. …
Colbert: Is this going to have any effect on the rest of the news media?
Carr: It’s gonna give us lots of juicy things to write about for a long time.
Colbert: You people are gonna sell papers based upon the things that they did?
Carr: Based upon the misery of others. That’s the business we’re in.
Colbert: Isn’t that Murdoch’s business model also?
Carr: He’s just better at it than we are, generally.
>Jon Stewart skewers Murdoch, Fox News (Comedy Central)
>How Twitter tracked the Parliament’s questions and the pie (Guardian)
>Murdoch papers played Parliament testimony prominently on front pages (Poynter)
>Phone-hacking scandal stirs debate on big media (New York Times)
>Analysts: FCC likely won’t strip Murdoch of any licenses (Politico)
>Wall Street Journal staffers push back (HuffPost)
>Piers Morgan responds to Parliamentarian’s allegations (CNN)
Watch the Colbert-Carr video:
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