Media critic Howard Kurtz is out of a job at Newsweek and The Daily Beast, but CNN is keeping Kurtz on the air, giving him a chance to explain to his viewers and readers how he could have made a huge mistake in his Jason Collins oped this week.
As we previously reported Kurtz wrote a piece criticizing NBA player Jason Collins for not mentioning his engagement to a woman in the Sports Illustrated essay in which he announced that he is gay. The trouble was that Collins did mention that he was once engaged to a woman and when Kurtz realized this, he did edit the piece. However, Kurtz still criticized Collins for not making a bigger deal out of the fact that he was engaged.
This caused an uproar on social media and the Daily Beast decided to retract the piece and editor Tina Brown tweeted that they had “parted ways” with Kurtz.
Kurtz later tweeted that “This was in the works for some time, but want to wish all my colleagues continued success with a terrific website.” But it still appears as if the Collins piece is the immediate reason for him leaving the publication.
After that news broke, a CNN spokesperson told The Wrap that they are “reviewing” the situation. Kurtz hosts Reliable Sources for the network, a show where he looks at media gaffes - like the obvious one he just committed.
Deadline reported today that CNN has decided to keep the show on the air and Kurtz will “address this issue on the program this weekend,” a spokesperson told the site.