The Daily Beast has fired media reporter Howard Kurtz hours after retracting his article about gay NBA player Jason Collins.
Dylan Byers of Politico broke the news, and editor-in-chief Tina Brown confirmed that they "parted ways."
Wednesday Kurtz wrote that Collins didn't admit that he was engaged to a woman.
That was factually incorrect.
In his coming out column in Sports Illustrated, Collins wrote, "When I was younger I dated women. I even got engaged. I thought I had to live a certain way. I thought I needed to marry a woman and raise kids with her."
In the retraction earlier Thursday, the Daily Beast wrote simply, "The Daily Beast sincerely regrets Kurtz’s error — and any implication that Collins attempted to hide or obscure the engagement."
Kurtz also hosts a CNN show called Reliable Sources, and contributes to a YouTube channel/website called the Daily Download.
He posted a Daily Download video Wednesday morning talking about Collins being engaged. In it, he reiterated the lie about the engagement, and had this awkward exchange:
Kurtz: "If you leave out the fact that you dated this woman for eight years and you were engaged to be married, then you have not told the whole story. I think this really muddies the plot line here."
Co-host (Lauren Ashburn): "What are you saying he's not gay?"
Kurtz: "Well obviously in basketball terms he has played both sides of the court."
Here's the full video:
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