The Daily Beast Retracted An Article Criticizing Jason Collins Because It Was Blatantly False

Leigh Vogel/Getty ImagesHoward KurtzHoward Kurtz, a media critic and journalist for the Daily Beast, wrote an article criticizing NBA player Jason Collins for not admitting that he was engaged to a woman in his coming out article in Sports Illustrated.

It was factually incorrect.

Collins explicitly said he was engaged, writing, "When I was younger I dated women. I even got engaged. I thought I had to live a certain way. I thought I needed to marry a woman and raise kids with her."

Kutz originally wrote that he "didn't come clean," and referred to the engagement as "Jason Collins' Other Hidden Secret."

Once the article went up, Kurtz was immediately mocked on Twitter.

At first he changed it to say "downplayed" instead of "didn't come clean." But since the entire article as based on a blatant falsehood, the Daily Beast decided to retract the whole thing this morning.

The statement:

"The Daily Beast sincerely regrets Kurtz’s error—and any implication that Collins attempted to hide or obscure the engagement."

If Kurtz or anyone who edited his article had read the Collins SI piece, this could have easily been avoided.