Page one: inside the NYT

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If columnist David Carr didn't actually inspire Page One: Inside the New York Times, he attracted the focal attention of the documentary's makers.

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David Carr, a reformed drug addict and ex-convict, scruffy and off-balance physically, shuffles around the Grey Lady's stylish palace of news like a Method Actor in search of a back alley. Vaguely deadpan, eyes seething, his face looking like a lost character from a Chandler short story, Carr tip-taps his laptop, recording interview notes about media morality with fierce self-righteousness. His existence and survival in the NYT is vital proof of the newspaper's unique character and role.

Inevitably, having been given access to the financially troubled paper's editorial offices and meetings, writer-director Andrew Rossi doesn't dig for dirt. He briefly acknowledges and then totally ignores the role of the NYT's white knight, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, (whose multi-million-dollar loan saved the paper, and will surely give him long-term possession of its valuable real estate.)

Much of the time, the documentary and NYT personnel fret about the future, the actual existence, of the printed newspaper business and the NYT itself. As they see it, the Internet era's media barbarians are not at the gate, they're ransacking the whole castle and destroying its viability.

One of bearded crusty Carr's many dramatic moments is his put-down of Gawker, after the news aggregator's owner joins a debate proposing that the demise of mainstream media is welcomed. Carr holds up a print-out of Gawker's front "page", from which he's cut out all the news items provided for it by the mainstream. There's just a sheet of holes.

Media buffs will enjoy many other moments when the virtues of well-researched news stories and backgrounders are displayed. Even more, they'll savour the Media desk's expose of the despicable characters who took over and pillaged the Tribune group, and Carr's role in forcing its CEO's resignation.

The documentary records an eventful period in the paper's history: Wikileaks was working with it, it was recovering from self-inflicted wounds from a lying journalist and the Iraq-WMD scandal, and the mercenary menace of Rupert Murdoch's empire was becoming clearer. The documentary shows that if ever there was an American institution that's too important to be allowed to fail, it's the NYT.