How does multi-platform conflict-machine Howard Kurtz crank out so much coverage, people wonder? Maybe it's easier to write a lot of media criticism if you don't read the media you're criticizing. So today Kurtz finds—for two different outlets—a dark shadow in the sunny coverage of NBA player Jason Collins' decision to come out as gay: Collins was at one point engaged to a woman.
"He didn't tell the whole story," Kurtz burbles in a Daily Download video.
Kurtz continues: "If you leave out the fact that you dated this woman for eight years and that you were engaged to be married, then you have not told the whole story and I think this really muddies the whole plotline."
Kurtz wrote the same argument for the Daily Beast, that Collins "left one little part out."
Except Collins didn't leave the detail out. It's right at the beginning of the eighth paragraph of his long Sports Illustrated piece:
When I was younger I dated women. I even got engaged.
Now, without any correction or explanation, Kurtz's Daily Beast item has been revised to say that Collins "downplayed one detail," which is still untrue. Update: The item now features a correction: "An earlier version of this story erroneously said that Collins had not mentioned his engagement in his Sports Illustrated essay."
"As a journalist, I am committed to giving you all the facts as I know them," Kurtz says, in the video, criticizing Collins for omitting the fact that Collins did not omit. The facts as Howie Kurtz knows them: not the actual facts.
(His video co-host, Lauren Ashburn, also inaccurately refers to the 34-year-old bench player as an "NBA superstar.")