Daily Beast And Howard Kurtz Part Ways Following Error-Ridden Jason Collins Engagement Story; Tina Brown Wishes Him Well

Updated Thursday 4:15 p.m.: Kurtz responded via Twitter to the announcement that he and the Daily Beast are parting ways:

Original Post:

Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of Newsweek/Daily Beast, said via tweet on Thursday that the company has parted ways with Washington Bureau Chief Howard Kurtz following Kurtz’s attempted takedown of Jason Collins.

Here is Brown’s full statement, first obtained by Politico’s Dylan Byers:

“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.”

Earlier Thursday, the Daily Beast retracted the factually inaccurate blog post by Kurtz, who had insisted that Jason Collins didn’t tell the whole story when he came out as gay in Sports Illustrated on Monday. The retraction came after almost a day of intense criticism and derision from Twitter users.

Kurtz initially wrote that Collins failed to reveal that he was once engaged to 34-year-old model Carolyn Moos. That statement was inaccurate, however, as Collins did mention the engagement in the Sports Illustrated piece.

“When I was younger I dated women,” he wrote. “I even got engaged. I thought I had to live a certain way.”

Kurtz amended the piece following a barrage of Twitter-born criticism, stating instead that Collins had “downplayed” the engagement. That characterization, too, attracted criticism, until the Daily Beast finally retracted the story early Thursday afternoon.

“The Daily Beast sincerely regrets Kurtz’s error -- and any implication that Collins attempted to hide or obscure the engagement,” editors of the website wrote.

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