Howard Kurtz Makes Big Correction To Darrell Issa Story

The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz added a whopper of a correction on Wednesday to a story he'd written nearly two months earlier, in late November. The correction? The man quoted throughout the piece wasn't its purported subject, Congressman Darrell Issa, but his spokesman, whom Kurtz had not realized he was actually speaking to.

In a post explaining the goof, Kurtz said that he had asked Issa's spokesman, Kurt Bardella, for an interview with Issa. His phone rang the same afternoon. Kurtz wrote that he "heard the words 'Darrell Issa'" and, presuming that he was speaking to the congressman, proceeded with the interview.

"I asked why 'you' made various statements about the president and congressional oversight, and he responded," Kurtz said. "I called him 'Congressman' several times during our discussion."

Kurtz said that Bardella had contacted him on Nov. 29, two days after the story ran, and informed him that there had been a misunderstanding. For whatever reason, Kurtz did not add the correction for over six weeks.

The full correction:

When I conducted the telephone interview for my Nov. 27 article on California Rep. Darrell Issa, my unambiguous understanding was that I was speaking with Rep. Issa. I subsequently learned that I was speaking to his chief spokesman, Kurt Bardella. None of the views ascribed to Issa are inaccurate, but the attribution throughout the story should have been to his spokesman, not to the congressman. We have since corrected the article. The earlier version also mentioned Darrell Issa's "tendency to refer to himself in the third person." In fact, that usage was appropriate because the interview was with his spokesman.

Comments

[shangrolah]

04:02 AM on 01/14/2011

EKS LATER!

http://gawker.com/5731654/why-did-howard-kurtz-sit-on-an-embarrassing-correction-for-six-weeks

That's a pretty insane error. But even insane errors can and will happen to every reporter, if they keep at it long enough. The real question here: Bardella apparently told Kurtz of the error on Nov. 29. Today is January 12, of the following year. Why the delay? It's hard to think of a real good reason a reporter would sit on a fairly major, embarrassi­ng correction for well more than a month. We've emailed TDB's spokespers­on, and we'll update if we get an explanatio­n.”

[shangrolah]

05:22 AM on 01/15/2011

It turns out that the correction was made only after Yahoo News! was going to do a story. It took six weeks and the news about to be broken by others.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecutline/20110114/bs_yblog_thecutline/kurtz-tweets-correction-after-beeing-prodded-for-days-by-reporter

[shangrolah]

09:00 PM on 01/15/2011

Howard Kurtz didn''t make the correction voluntarily. He knew about the mistake for six weeks and did nothing-- hoping nobody would no any better.

It turns out that the correction was made only after Yahoo News! was going to do a story. Kurtz made the correction only after being told Yahoo was going to do it for him.

It took six weeks and the news about to be broken by others for him to acknowledge his mistake.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecutline/20110114/bs_yblog_thecutline/kurtz-tweets-correction-after-beeing-prodded-for-days-by-reporter

[murphysgirl]

08:12 PM on 01/13/2011

Another reason to disregard Kurtz as a "Reliable Source."

[shangrolah]

04:03 AM on 01/14/2011

Somewhat reliable source.

[Congo Line]

01:42 PM on 01/13/2011

Huge Fail..on the part of the staffer.
I guess Issa was busy. Stealing cars.

[blucaller]

12:10 PM on 01/13/2011

You have to wonder how he will find a false equivalency for this

[ydrittmann]

02:35 PM on 01/13/2011

People called Bush names!

[grumbles]

11:52 AM on 01/13/2011

...that's ok howie, usually your incorrect statements dont have any rhymn or reason attributed to them, so this time, while late, i excuse you.......

[poeticjustice4all]

11:45 AM on 01/13/2011

If there were any left who did not question Kurtz' integrity and professionalism, this should end the debate. Mistakes happen, but obviously Kurtz was timing this non-apology apology for a weekend when the revelation of his freshman journalism schoolboy mistake would be buried by bigger news.

There was a time in this country when such lies and hypocrisy from a newsman, once exposed, would automatically be cause for resignation -- or banishment from the profession.

[Red45]

01:16 PM on 01/13/2011

Huh? "...lies and hypocrisy"? Did I miss something?

[LicentiousMaximus]

11:29 AM on 01/13/2011

This is only a story if you consider Kurtz a journalist­. He isn't. He's a corporate h@ck selling the corporate line.

[msblynne]

11:16 AM on 01/13/2011

Human beings make mistakes. What, you never made one?

[raven119]

10:22 AM on 01/13/2011

I think we have found the source of Lame Stream Media.

[WiltonDiary]

10:08 AM on 01/13/2011

Issa has no credibility and his spokesman has less!

[EducatedWoman]

12:07 PM on 01/13/2011

Whoa! How is the journalist's failure to immediately correct his story related to his subject's credibility?

[joyf1]

01:09 PM on 01/13/2011

So, the spokesman never bothers to tell Kurtz who he was during the conversation? Either he was half listening or chose to ignore it.

[apoyo]

09:56 AM on 01/13/2011

This from the man who hosts "Reliable Sources."

This is the height of arrogance and irony.

Usage of the third person was appropriate?
Well, I guess so, since he was speaking with a third person.

It was Howard, first person.
Issa, second person.
And spokesman, third person.

LOL!

[IreneNH]

09:38 AM on 01/13/2011

When I get a phone call from someone whose voice I am not familiar with, I say "May I ask who's calling?"
Children as young as three are pretty adept at this also.

[shangrolah]

08:41 AM on 01/13/2011

http://gawker.com/5731654/why-did-howard-kurtz-sit-on-an-embarrassing-correction-for-six-weeks

That's a pretty insane error. But even insane errors can and will happen to every reporter, if they keep at it long enough. The real question here: Bardella apparently told Kurtz of the error on Nov. 29. Today is January 12, of the following year. Why the delay? It's hard to think of a real good reason a reporter would sit on a fairly major, embarrassing correction for well more than a month. We've emailed TDB's spokesperson, and we'll update if we get an explanation.

[shangrolah]

08:37 AM on 01/13/2011

http://gawker.com/5731654/why-did-howard-kurtz-sit-on-an-embarrassing-correction-for-six-weeks

People should read the Gawker post. Much more detail. Devastating detail. Shows he only made the correction after he had too. When he wasn't going to get away with covering it up.

[Puller58]

07:14 AM on 01/13/2011

Howie's a tool.

[shangrolah]

08:42 AM on 01/13/2011

Tool for what? Not capable of that in that sense.