This is not a ritual for me where you just come on camera and say you’re sorry and hope to move on. I’m truly sorry about what happened. I believe deeply in good journalism and fair journalism and I am determined to learn from this episode and minimize the chances of anything like this happening again.CNN “Reliable Sources” host Howard Kurtz • Apologizing, at extreme length, for his erroneous reporting about the Jason Collins story as well as his sloppy overall reporting in recent years. Kurtz, who left his job at The Daily Beast last week, said that his departure from the publication was amicable and mutual, and already in the works before the Collins situation broke. Kurtz, who also faced conflict-of-interest questions over his ties to a small-scale site called The Daily Download, spent a full fifteen minutes atoning for his journalistic sins this morning, according to Politico.
The Daily Beast and Howard Kurtz have parted company. Under the direction of our newly named political director John Avlon we have added new momentum and authority to our Washington bureau with columnists such as Jon Favreau, Joshua Dubois and Stuart Stevens joining our outstanding DC team of Eleanor Clift, Daniel Klaidman, Michael Tomasky, Eli Lake, David Frum and Michelle Cottle—giving us one of the best politics teams in the business which was instrumental in this week’s Webby win for Best News site.A statement from The Daily Beast, revealing they had dropped Howard Kurtz, days after Kurtz wrote a column for the site suggesting that openly-gay NBA star Jason Collins had lied about a prior engagement—despite the fact that Collins had been up front about the situation in interviews and had specifically mentioned the fact in his Sports Illustrated cover story. The publication retracted the column, though Politico notes that the firing may have had just as much to do with Kurtz’s extremely busy schedule. On top of the Beast, Kurtz also hosts CNN’s “Reliable Sources” and writes for “The Daily Download,” a media criticism site.
Daily Beast media writer Howard Kurtz tries to expose a major hole in the Jason Collins story, fails miserably, gets called out for it on Twitter. Fun.
The truth of the matter is, I was blackballed within the industry, that people… hiring managers see Fox News on your resumé and say, ‘This guy’s a conservative. This guy’s a nut. We don’t want him in our organization.’ I was completely blackballed within the cable news industry.“Fox News Mole” Joe Muto • Discussing, with CNN’s Howard Kurtz, part of the reason why he publicly decided to take $5,000 from Gawker to spill the beans on his former employer. Mediaite takes exception to this comment, noting a few examples of Fox News workers jumping ship. That said, Muto had some fair points: For example, Kurtz seemed unaware of the heavy criticism Fox News’ sister site, Fox Nation, has gotten, offering pushback to Muto’s criticisms and giving the impression Kurtz has never visited the site. But Muto wasn’t fully negative about his experience, saying he worked with some great people. Anyway, we highly recommend you watch the interview — though Muto is clearly rough around the edges, it’s fascinating.
Within a few hours of Tuesdays announcement, a Politico reporter told me she was working on a second-day story. And by late afternoon, media columnists were already drawing up lists of who might replace me at The Post. I was old news, just like that.Howard “quitting after 29 years” Kurtz • In his “I’m leaving” announcement on his Washington Post blog this morning. Kurtz was in disbelief that his departure actually led to his name briefly becoming a trending topic on Twitter yesterday “without even popping off, Rick Sanchez-style.” He claimed that he was departing because he found the ability to help mold the new-media landscape “irresistible.” We’ll see what the dude can do with The Daily Beast’s Washington bureau. It might be cool. source (via)
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