Kurtz parted ways with The Daily Beast Thursday. The Howie Kurtz saga

At the height of his influence, Howard Kurtz was widely regarded as the most influential media reporter and critic in the country. But in recent years, erroneous reporting and careless errors reduced him to fodder for the media reporters and critics who followed in his footsteps.

No single event has dealt such a crushing blow to Kurtz’s reputation as Thursday’s decision to “part ways” — after a serious mistake in a story about gay basketball player Jason Collins — with The Daily Beast, where he has served as columnist and Washington bureau chief since leaving a long, illustrious career with The Washington Post in 2010.


In the wake of that decision, CNN also announced that Kurtz’s longtime weekend media criticism show, “Reliable Sources,” was under review.

( Also on POLITICO: Daily Beast drops Howard Kurtz)

It’s quite a tumble for a reporter who, in 2000, was dubbed “the most important media reporter in America” by The New Republic. That view was widely shared throughout the industry. Five years later, Fox News spokesman and Vice President Brian Lewis similarly called Kurtz “the most influential media reporter — by far — and a ‘must read’ in our place.” For years, Kurtz was known for his peppy, engaging writing style and for his ability to notice buzzy media stories that would set tongues wagging in Washington and New York.

Tina Brown, the editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast, did not explain the reasons for Kurtz’s leaving: “The Daily Beast and Howard Kurtz have parted company,” she said in a statement. Kurtz similarly said on Twitter that “both sides agreed it was best to part company.”

But sources at the Daily Beast and CNN, who spoke to POLITICO on condition of anonymity, said there were several reasons for the breakup: For one thing, Kurtz had a string of high-profile mistakes on his record and that had become a source of embarrassment for The Daily Beast. For another, he commanded a hefty paycheck, despite turning out fewer scoops than in the past.

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“People here have been groaning about Howie for years,” a source at CNN said. “He’s like the Dick Morris of media critics — just shoddy and out of the game.”

But perhaps the main factor that led Kurtz out the door, several sources said, was the same quality that had fueled his rise in the first place decades ago: a hyperactive work ethic that ended up dividing his attentions and ultimately proved unsustainable.

“It became clear to folks here that Howie had a lot of other commitments, and that that wasn’t working,” a Daily Beast source said.

On Twitter, some reporters criticized Kurtz for his sloppy errors. Josh Barro of Bloomberg wrote, “Between Dick Morris and Howard Kurtz, we’re seeing a dangerous trend where commentators lose their jobs for being bad at them.” Brian Beutler at Talking Points Memo said: “cc: H Kurtz RT @Pontifex My thoughts turn to all who are unemployed, often as a result of a self-centred mindset bent on profit at any cost.” And Dan Froomkin of the Huffington Post tweeted, “Read @kurteichenwald on how Howard Kurtz’s biggest mistake wasn’t writing drivel, it was lacking empathy.”

But others came to his defense.

“Feeding frenzy @howardkurtz; ironic since he’s cover SO MANY media firestorms. Great reporter through decades. So few left. Won’t pile on!” Matt Drudge, the influential conservative, wrote on Twitter.

Kurtz did not respond to a request from POLITICO to comment about his departure. But he tweeted after the announcement.

“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,” Kurtz wrote. “This was in the works for some time, but want to wish all my colleagues continued success with a terrific website. Newsweek and the Beast are great brands, but the time had come for me to move on to other opportunities.”

Despite having his own show on CNN, Kurtz has dedicated much of his recent time to a new venture: a website called “The Daily Download,” where he regularly appears in video segments with the site’s founder and editor Lauren Ashburn. That preoccupation seems to have taken a toll on Kurtz’s attention span and focus.

On Wednesday, Kurtz incorrectly reported that NBA center Collins, who this week revealed that he was gay in a piece for Sports Illustrated, had failed to disclose that he was once engaged to a woman. In fact, Collins had stated as much in the story, and alluded to it again in a subsequent interview with ABC News. In a video for Daily Download, Kurtz also accused Collins of “playing both sides of the court,” a statement that was widely seen as insensitive.

But this was just the latest in a string of mistakes Kurtz has made in recent years.

In 2010, Kurtz wrote a story about Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) that suggested he had interviewed the congressman. Unfortunately, no such interview had taken place. It took three months, but Kurtz ultimately issued a lengthy correction in which he claimed to have been unaware that he was speaking with the congressman’s spokesman, not with the actual lawmaker.

In 2011, Kurtz published a story that appeared to depict Nancy Pelosi criticizing the Obama administration’s ability to stay “on message.” Newsweek and The Daily Beast later corrected the story, noting that it “included a comment erroneously attributed to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, criticizing the White House’s efforts at political messaging.” A Pelosi spokesman also told POLITICO at the time that she had not issued the quote. The Washingtonian awarded Kurtz with the year’s “most embarrassing correction.”

Then, in January of this year, Kurtz acknowledged that he had edited an error into a story indicating that Fox News Host Greta Van Susteren was casting doubts on an illness suffered by Hillary Clinton. “I want to apologize to Fox’s Greta Van Susteren for adding incorrect information about her to a Daily Beast article,” he wrote, adding later, “What’s more, as the piece noted, Van Susteren took to task those who mocked Clinton’s illness, including her own Fox colleagues. For that, she deserves kudos, not an inaccurate account.”

Kurtz joined The Washington Post in 1981, where he served under legendary editor Ben Bradlee covering the Justice Department and Capitol Hill before serving as the paper’s New York bureau chief. He started covering media in 1990 and joined CNN as its resident media critic eight years later. In 2010, Brown lured him away from the Post with what one source described as a “very generous” salary.

The decision to add “The Daily Download” to this list of responsibilities has confounded some of Kurtz’s viewers.

”What would I go to this site for? As another place Howard Kurtz does his able thing on the week’s media news? Okay, but why does he need that? And why do we? He’s got the Daily Beast and CNN: plenty of platform,” Jay Rosen, the New York University journalism professor, wrote in an email to POLITICO. “Daily Download resists understanding.”

The question of Kurtz’s future, in terms of both reputation and relevance, now turns to CNN.

The network’s new president, Jeff Zucker, has stated that there are aspects of the old CNN he would like to change. It is unclear how this might affect Kurtz, but the network’s weekend programming has already started shifting toward more entertainment-oriented programming.