Even though he drops “Internet” and “new media” like they were these ill loaded words, J.C., or John Carroll as I called him to his face and to others around the office, is one of the last great newspaper editors. Sure, David Simon, the creator of The Wire says nothing nice about the man. So why do I think he was so great?
Mainly because he chatted me up on one of those days I was having. He invited me to sit down at the table with him in his big ass glass office there on Spring Street, and chopped it up with me. What surprised me was the care he took in reading my entire resume.
“Star-Ledger, huh?” he asked me. “Good paper.” I didn’t tell him that that story about the dead strawberry made me kick the reporting habit even before I was out of college.
“TV? Is that really what you want to do?” He asked that with a bit of disgust when he caught I did that little Channel 5 internship. I shook my head. I’m not into broadcast like that.
If you take a long look at the video above, this is J.C. in his late hey-day just several years ago. When I just got out to L.A. and he was running tings! He talks BIG-business in this piece. I think he knew the downward spiral was in effizect at this point. God bless him for believing in this trade. Just a couple of highlights from the vid: He goes in on Arnold around 23:05. He straight quotes Malcolm X around 36:49, but in the context of renewed interest in reporting after 911. Cold piece of work.
channibalsmith.com 