The 'Reliable Sources' host takes to his CNN program to apologize for writing that the NBA player didn't tell the whole truth when he came out as gay in a Sports Illustrated cover.
- May 6, 2013
AceShowbiz - Howard Kurtz used his CNN show "Reliable Show" on Sunday, May 5, to apologize for the report he wrote in Daily Beast about Jason Collins. In his writing, Kurtz suggested that Collins was dishonest by not telling readers that the NBA player was once engaged to a woman before coming out as gay in a Sports Illustrated cover. The mistake led to Kurtz's firing from the Newsweek Magazine.
"I read the 'Sports Illustrated' article by Jason Collins, the first pro male-team athlete to come out publicly as gay. I read it too fast and carelessly missed that Jason Collins said he was engaged previously to a woman and [I] then wrote and commented that he was wrong to keep that from readers when, in fact, I was the one that was wrong," he confessed.
"My logic between what happened between Jason Collins and his former fiancee and what was and wasn't disclosed -in hindsight, well, I was wrong to even raise that and showed a lack of sensitivity to the issue. Also, I didn't give him a chance to respond to my account before I wrote it," he continued.
"The mistake I made was sloppy and inexcusable," Kurtz added. "I am truly sorry about what happened ... and I am determined to learn from this episode and minimize the chances of anything like this happening again."
Interviewed by POLITICO's Dylan Byers and NPR's David Folkenflik, Kurtz also addressed his Daily Beast exit. Calling the split an "amicable divorce," he said, "We were moving in different directions, after the closing of Newsweek's print edition, there were a lot of personnel changes. There was downsizing."
