Wrong is such a downer of a word. But in The Daily Beast’s/Newsweek‘s Howard Kurtz case, it’s reoccurring. When Weinergate began to surface online, the longtime media reporter’s attitude was let’s sit, wait and let things marinate before we start playing Attack the Weiner. He waited five long days. Joe Paterno‘s death? Let’s run with it! Immediately. At 8:57 p.m. Saturday night he wrote:

I say again, sad ending to a long career: Joe Paterno confirmed dead.

— HowardKurtz (@HowardKurtz) January 22, 2012

Some 37 minutes later, Kurtz realized he better clean up his error.

CORRECTION: No confirmation on Paterno death, though he’s gravely ill. That’s from a CBS Sports blog.

— HowardKurtz (@HowardKurtz) January 22, 2012

Some of his followers jumped on him and other members of the media for it: “Howard Kurtz, can’t believe u repeated Paterno story on such thin sourcing.” Another called him a mule. “Howard Kurtz, The Daily Beast, we all have sad endings. You and the other media mules jumped the pc shark on him.” Still another hoped he might cover his own error. “Howard Kurtz, I hope you’ll be covering this on your show tomorrow, the rush by many to break the story without an actual confirmation.”

Kurtz didn’t have long to be wrong. Indeed early Sunday morning Paterno died of lung cancer, the family released a statement and reports began reflecting the news.