The Daily Beast’s Best Longreads, Feb 9-15

(Although these pieces were not published this week, with the death of New York Times media critic David Carr, The Daily Beast would like to highlight some of his work.)

At Flagging Tribune, Tales of a Bankrupt CultureBy David Carr, New York TimesWhile many media companies tried cost-cutting and new tactics in the last few years, Tribune was particularly aggressive in planning publicity stunts and in mixing advertising with editorial material. Those efforts alienated longtime employees and audiences in the communities its newspapers served.

The Kingdom and the Power of David CarrBy Tom McGeveran, Capital New YorkNew York Times media reporter David Carr had a bad feeling during a photo shoot he was doing for Interview magazine early last month.

And now back to the regular selection of longreads

The Hezbollah ConnectionBy Ronen Bergman, New York Times MagazineRafik Hariri, a former prime minister of Lebanon, was killed with 21 others in 2005, when a truck bomb exploded near his motorcade in Lebanon. Ten years later, is justice possible?

On Edgar Allan PoeBy Marilynne Robinson, The New York Review of BooksEdgar Allan Poe was and is a turbulence, an anomaly among the major American writers of his period, an anomaly to this day. He both amazed and antagonized his contemporaries, who could not dismiss him from the first rank of writers, though many felt his work to be morally questionable and in dubious taste, and though he scourged them in print regularly in the course of producing a body of criticism that is sometimes flatly vindictive and often brilliant.

This Your Brain on MagicBy Cari Romm, The AtlanticPsychologists and neuroscientists have an unlikely ally in their quest to understand human nature: professional magicians.

How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s LifeBy Jon Rosen, New York Times MagazineThe furor over Sacco’s tweet had become not just an ideological crusade against her perceived bigotry but also a form of idle entertainment.

A Life On The LineBy Mike Fish, ESPNFor four decades, other gamblers have tried to be Billy Walters while investigators have tried to bring him down. And for four decades, the world’s most successful sports bettor has outrun them all.

Ten Years of Google Maps, From Slashdot to Ground TruthBy Liz Gannes, Re/CodeTen years ago on Feb. 8, Google Maps launched to the world.

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