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Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz joins the Daily Beast

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After three decades of writing about the media for the Washington Post, Howard Kurtz is taking a new gig at Tina Brown’s website, the Daily Beast.

“After a lifetime in newspapers, I’m ready for the challenge of fast-paced online journalism,” Kurtz said Tuesday. The Daily Beast describes his beat as “politics, media, and the intersection of the two.”

Kurtz will continue his “Reliable Sources” show on CNN.

Last month, Newsweek’s Howard Fineman and the New York Times’ Peter Goodman both signed on with the Beast’s competitor, the Huffington Post.

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—Melissa Maerz

Vargas a new KCBS anchor

Former Los Angeles-based CNN anchor, correspondent and producer Sibila Vargas has been named co-anchor of the morning newscasts at KCBS-TV Channel 2. Vargas will start Monday and will co-anchor the station’s weekday 4:30 a.m.-to-7 a.m. newscast, as well as the 11 a.m. newscast.

Vargas replaces Suzanne Rico, who left KCBS in March. Lisa Sigell had been filling the anchor spot on an interim basis.

Vargas most recently was the weekday morning news co-anchor for KRIV-TV, the Fox-owned and -operated station in Houston.

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—Greg Braxton

Israelis to play at Bayreuth

An Israeli orchestra is set to become the first ensemble from the Jewish state to play a German festival associated with Richard Wagner, a composer admired by Adolf Hitler and whose music has been controversial in Israel.

The Israel Chamber Orchestra will perform at the annual Bayreuth Festival in July in the German town where Wagner lived the latter part of his life until his death in 1883. He built an opera house there, designed to host his own expansive works.

Israeli orchestras rarely play Wagner’s music, citing the feelings of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust.

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Meirav Magen-Leilie, the Israel Chamber Orchestra spokeswoman, said the orchestra would not rehearse Wagner’s music while in Israel and any member who wished to be excused from playing his works would be accommodated.

—Reuters

Poor start for ‘Parker Spitzer’

Eliot Spitzer may have a ways to go in his bid for TV stardom.

On Monday, the disgraced former governor of New York bombed in his new prime-time CNN talk show with co-host Kathleen Parker. “Parker Spitzer” drew a paltry 454,000 viewers, according to the Nielsen Co.

That ranked dead last in the cable news race for the time period, far behind Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” (3.1 million) and MSNBC’s “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” (1.1 million). The premiere was even edged out by HLN’s Nancy Grace, who drew 468,000.

One yardstick for “Parker Spitzer” is comparing it with “Campbell Brown,” the news program it replaced. The premiere of Brown’s show two years ago drew 1.3 million viewers. Brown earlier this year left the network, acknowledging that her ratings were too low.

—Scott Collins

Sanchez’s wife says he’s sorry

Love means never having to say you’re sorry — because, sometimes, your wife can do it for you.

Suzanne Sanchez, who’s married to former CNN newscaster Rick Sanchez, noted on her Facebook page Monday that her husband had made amends with Jon Stewart after calling him a “bigot” during a radio interview and suggesting that Jews run CNN and “all the other” networks. Sanchez was fired for the remarks last Friday.

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“rick apologized to jon stewart today,” wrote the mother of Sanchez’s four children. She went on to say, “his exhaustion from working 14 hr days for 2 mo. straight caused him to mangle his thought process inartfully. he got caught up in the banter and deeply apologizes to anyone who was offended by his unintended comments.”

For his part, Sanchez has not yet commented publicly.

—Melissa Maerz

Finally

New dude: Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel told members of the orchestra that he and his wife, Eloísa Maturén, are expecting their first baby, a boy, next year.

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