Celebrity News

Howard Kurtz dismissed after erroneous Jason Collins story

An erroneous story on NBA player Jason Collins — who revealed in Sports Illustrated this week that he’s gay — led to the dumping of the Daily Beast’s Washington bureau chief Howard Kurtz. He claimed in his Beast column that Collins tried to hide the fact he was once engaged to a woman, when in fact Collins addressed the issue in the cover story he wrote for SI. Kurtz’s piece was eventually pulled and he was dismissed. It came after questions arose over Kurtz’s cozy relationship with media site Daily Download, run by Lauren Ashburn, which he promoted on Twitter more than his work for the Daily Beast. Kurtz’s and Ashburn’s close relationship raised eyebrows among staffers.