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Daily Beast Drops Howard Kurtz (Politico / Dylan Byers on Media)
The Daily Beast is dropping Howard Kurtz, the veteran media critic who made headlines this week for his erroneous report about NBA star Jason Collins. “The Daily Beast and Howard Kurtz have parted company,” Tina Brown, the site’s editor-in-chief, said in a statement sent to Politico. The decision comes after Kurtz published a blog post that falsely asserted that Collins, who announced he was gay in an article for Sports Illustrated, had neglected to mention his previous engagement to a woman. In fact, Collins mentioned that engagement in the article and in a subsequent interview with ABC News. The Daily Beast retracted that post on Thursday morning. The Washington Post / Erik Wemple Following Brown’s announcement, Kurtz tweeted: “I’ve enjoyed my time at the Daily Beast but as we began to move in different directions, both sides agreed it was best to part company.” He added: “This was in the works for some time, but want to wish all my colleagues continued success with a terrific website.” TVNewser Kurtz joined the Daily Beast in October 2010, after leaving The Washington Post. His tenure at the Daily Beast includes some big interviews with the likes of Roger Ailes and Matt Lauer, but was also filled with controversy. We wrote about a ridiculous item he filed about TV coverage of the primaries, and he emailed a Daily Beast colleague to discourage her from writing about Anderson Cooper’s sexuality. He also was reluctant to give credit when others broke stories, and was loathe to correct errors, a number of which were in his big interview with Lauer. The Wrap / WaxWord Howard Kurtz and his weekly Reliable Sources media talk show are under review after his firing from the Daily Beast over erroneous reporting, a CNN spokeswoman told The Wrap on Thursday. “We are reviewing it,” the spokeswoman told The Wrap. Jeff Zucker, the new chieftain at CNN is “supportive” of Kurtz’s show, but the network is unhappy with the error and is reviewing it, the spokeswoman said. Another senior executive at Turner said that there was no planned change with the show, but that it would ultimately be Zucker’s decision. HuffPost / The Backstory Despite his claim that he is merely a contributor, there are rumors that Kurtz has a larger role in the Daily Download. According to one media executive who spoke to HuffPost on condition of anonymity, Kurtz characterized himself as a partner in the Daily Download during a conversation last year. Separately, a journalist who was approached by Kurtz to work at Daily Download told HuffPost that he presented the site as a start-up he was developing along with editor-in-chief Lauren Ashburn. Read more

The Daily Beast just dropped the axe on Howard Kurtz. Tina Brown tweeted, “The Daily Beast and Howard Kurtz have parted company. We wish him well.”

Kurtz has been under fire recently for an idiotic column he penned on Jason Collins. In the piece, Kurtz tried to “get” Collins by claiming that he “wasn’t telling the whole story” because Collins didn’t say in his coming out tale that he was engaged to a woman.

Except that Collins did. Which made Kurtz’s entire “slam” of Collins look absolutely horrible. It was so bad The Daily Beast issued a formal retraction of the column and apologized. And now the company has retracted Kurtz’s employment.

The “Most Honest And Unintentionally Depressing Answer Of The Day” award goes to Barry Diller, IAC’s chairman. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Diller admits that buying Newsweek was a mistake, and even adds that the all-digital NewsBeast isn’t likely to succeed:

For a news magazine, which is a bit of an odd phrase today, it was not possible to print it any longer. We said we will offer digital products. We have a very solid newsroom. We will see. I do not have great expectations. I wish I had not bought Newsweek. It was a mistake.

Okay! Now, get to work Tina Brown and crew! Or don’t.

Nico Hines has joined The Daily Beast as its new London editor. Hines comes to the site from The Times (of London), where he had worked since 2006. He most recently served as the paper’s Washington correspondent.

In a memo announcing the move, Tina Brown wrote that Hines is “a first-rate reporter whose wit and flair will be right at home on The Beast.”

The full note from Brown is below.

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Credit: Roxxe Ireland/Marc Bryan-Brown for Newsweek Daily Beast

For the fourth annual Women in the World Summit, Tina Brown and Newsweek Daily Beast gathered remarkable women of all stripes to highlight their sisters around the globe and provide solutions to atrocities like the honor killings in Pakistan and the tens of thousands of rapes in Syria.

In her opening remarks Thursday at Lincoln Center, Brown urged everyone in attendance to take Sheryl Sandberg‘s advice a step further and “lean ON” companies and governments to do a better job at protecting and propelling women forward. Read more

Tina Brown, in an appearance on Bloomberg TV’s Market Makers, said that the business side of journalism basically ruins everything. At one point she said that the focus on numbers is “soul destroying” and that “We do not have enough respect for content anymore.”

“There is less respect for the editorial process then there ever was amongst business folks,” continued Brown. “The people who write the checks basically think there is less of a sense that editorial people can have some integrity and stay aloof and say, ‘this is business and this is news,’ and many people in media profession feel like too much of that has been eroded, and there must be some respect for the integrity of news or we will be a very ill-informed nation.”

For more, click that play button above. It’s magic.

Stuart Stevens, Mitt Romney’s chief strategist, has joined The Daily Beast as a columnist. “Stuart’s eclectic background and prodigious writing talent make him a wonderful addition to our team,” said Tina Brown, in a memo to staffers.

This is the second big political hire for the site this month. Jon Favreau, President Obama’s speechwriter, recently came aboard.

The full note from Brown is below.

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Tunku Varadarajan is stepping down as the editor of Newsweek Global. Adweek reports that Varadarajan is leaving to work on a book and spend time with his family. Varadarajan had been the editor of Newsweek International, and was tapped as the editor of the all digital format, Newsweek Global.

In a memo, Tina Brown said of Varadarajan, “We can all agree that he has done a stellar job as editor of the all-digital Newsweek, bringing the magazine so smartly into its new, exciting lease-of-life phase with his counterintuitive ideas, terrific cadre of writers week-after-week and the editorial collegiality that has made him such a pleasure to work with.”

For Brown’s full note, head over to Adweek.

Jon Favreau, the former speechwriter for President Obama, is joining The Daily Beast. According to a note from Tina Brown, Favreau will join the site as a bi-weekly columnist.

Favreau left the Obama administration earlier this month. He got his start in politics writing speeches for John Kerry.

Below is Brown’s full memo.

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Josh DuBois, who left his position as faith advisor for President Barack Obama early last month, is joining The Daily Beast. According to a memo obtained by Politico, Dubois will be the site’s new faith columnist.

Dubois was one of President Obama’s longest tenured assistants, most recently serving as executive director of the White House’s Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

In a memo, Tina Brown said Dubois’ column will focus on “The role of faith in solving pressing social problems.”