Howard Kurtz began his weekly Sunday media show on CNN by apologizing to Jason Collins for his "sloppy and inexcusable" Daily Beast story that suggested the NBA player wasn't telling the whole truth when he came out as gay in a Sports Illustrated cover.
"The mistake I made was sloppy and inexcusable," Kurtz said. He read Collin's SI story "too fast and carelessly missed" that the basketball player had written about his previous engagement to a woman.
STORY: Howard Kurtz Status at CNN Unchanged
Last Wednesday, Kurtz published a Daily Beast story entitled "Jason Collins' Other Secret" that stated that the player hadn't mentioned his prior engagement to a woman. In fact, Collins had written about it the SI essay, saying, “When I was younger I dated women. I even got engaged."
After the error was pointed out, Kurtz revised the language in the story and but stood by the premise. "My first correction to that story was not as complete as it should have been," the anchor conceded on Sunday. "I apologize to readers to viewers and most importantly to Jason Collins and his fiance," he said.
The Daily Beast officially retracted the entire post on Thursday. And editor in chief Tina Brown subsequently issued a statement saying that "The Daily Beast and Howard Kurtz have parted company."
On Reliable Sources, Kurtz was interviewed by Politico's Dylan Byers and NPR's David Folkenflik about what led to his Newsweek/Daily Beast exit.
Byers and Folkenflik also asked Kurtz about his involvement with the website, the Daily Download. In a video for the site, Kurtz mocked Collins by saying that the player had "played both sides of the court" in reference to his prior engagement to a woman.
"My tone was completely inappropriate," the host said on Sunday about the video.
Kurtz characterized his Daily Beast firing as an "amicable divorce" whose timing did not necessarily have to do with the Collins story. "This was already in the works, we were moving in different directions after the closing" of Newsweek's print edition, he said.
Kurtz will continue to host CNN's Reliable Sources after this week. "There has been no status change with Howard Kurtz; he remains the host of Reliable Sources," read a statement Friday from the network.
