Larry Kramer: Pure Digital Satisfaction



(image via sfgate)

Next week, at the We Media: Behold The Power of Us Conference, where we are a fellow, The Corsair will finally meet Larry Kramer, sans duct tape. We've played the scenario over in our head a thousand times. We know Larry will love us, we just know.

We've tried to find other digital media quarry. We truly did. Dick Parsons, for example, just didn't have that right digital ... "oomph." Don't get us wrong, "Parsy" -- as we like to call him -- Parsy has a tight digital game; but he's no Larry. (The Corsair speaks in tones of muted awe) Our Larry is ... "special." Larry Kramer is, in a manner of speaking: Pure digital satisfaction.

And so, with obsessive compulsion, we continue to blogstalk CBS Digital President Larry Kramer. This time, Marketwatch, the company Kramer founded, profiles him, fueling our unnatural obsession, saying:

"Not many people can boast his breadth of experience - or experiences. Kramer a) covered the Woodstock festival for the Associated Press at the age of 19 (fondly remembering folk singer John Sebastian's performance) b) possesses an MBA from Harvard c) served as the fabled Washington Post Editor Benjamin Bradlee's assistant d) edited Hunter Thompson's columns during Kramer's reign as the top editor of the San Francisco Examiner.

"He is also slyly disarming. The first time I met him, I had been working for MarketWatch for only a few weeks. He introduced himself and asked how our company's stock was faring. It's down 1/2 I said warily.

"He quipped: 'Well, I just spoke for a half-hour on Wall Street. If I'd spoken for a FULL hour, the stock'd probably be down a point.'"

At this point, we imagine, the author of this piece, one: Jon Friedman, exploding into peals of theatrical laughter suffused with crocodile tears of wonderous mirth. "Oh Mr. Kramer," he exclaims, collapsing, in between fitful gasps of air, "you are too much." Hey Friedman, we saw him first! Friedman continues:

"After that, more times than not, the thickly bearded Kramer would appear in our newsroom dressed in his standard outfit of blue jeans, sneakers and open shirt."

(An uncomfortable silence; The Corsair backs the fuck up) Okay, Friedman, uh, clearly you like Larry a whole lot more than I.

The rest of this moist, lascivious profile here.