Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown just announced that The Daily Beast and columnist Howard Kurtz have “parted company.” Kurtz, who ironically also hosts CNN’s “Reliable Sources” talk show focused on integrity and truth in journalism, reportedly was fired from the Daily Beast after his column attacking Jason Collins had to be fully removed and retracted.
Kurtz had claimed that Collins, in his Sports Illustrated op-ed announcing he is gay, did not disclose he had been engaged to a woman, which was false.
In “Howard Kurtz Wrote the World’s Worst Column on Jason Collins,” New York Magazine’s Dan Amira wrote yesterday:
The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz really thought he had a winner on his hands. He alone seemed to notice that Collins failed to mention in his supposed tell-all coming-out piece that he’d previously been heterosexually engaged. Armed with unique insights into the significance of this glaring omission, Kurtz wrote an entire column based around the idea that Collins was not the brave truth-teller he’d passed himself off to be:
One of the reasons that Jason Collins’ coming out packed such an emotional punch is that he appeared to be telling all … Except that he left one little part out. He was engaged. To be married. To a woman …
Collins was hailed by the media and other public figures for having the courage to tell his story. Turns out it was an edited story …
I have to assess a foul for the incomplete nature of the disclosure. Did Collins think his longtime squeeze was just going to stay silent? Perhaps in his next interview, as he tries to get another basketball team to pick him up, Collins can tell us the rest of the story.
There was one major flaw in Kurtz’s premise. Collins did mention his engagement to a woman:
When I was younger I dated women. I even got engaged.
Gawker merely stated, “Howard Kurtz’s Shocking Revelation: He Can’t Read.”
A series of tweets seem to tell the story — or two different stories.
Newsweek and the Beast are great brands, but the time had come for me to move on to other opportunities.
— HowardKurtz (@HowardKurtz) May 2, 2013