Sources also told the Hollywood Reporter that CNN is not likely to renew Kurtz's contract. "The network is also looking into Kurtz's involvement with the web site The Daily Download after media organizations raised the specter of a conflict of interest between Kurtz's day job and his freelance role at the site that was launched in February 2012," writes THR.

Kurtz was fired from the Daily Beast after wrongly accusing NBA star Jason Collins, who made sports history for coming out as gay in Sports Illustrated this week, for not disclosing the fact that Collins was once engaged. (Collins stated that he was engaged early in the piece). The Daily Beast has since pulled the column and fired Kurtz, who has made serious reporting errors before, including a column in which he misquoted Rep. Darrell Issa's spokesman as Rep. Darrell Issa.

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Some New Zealand parents were getting so creative devising unique names for their newborns that the country's Department of Internal Affairs has stepped in to stop the shenanigans.

New Zealand released an official list of rejected names on Wednesday that includes "4Real," "Mafia No Fear" and "Anal." Other gems — like "." and "*" — didn't even bother with the alphabet. All of the names on the list were at some point proposed by parents, soon to be rejected by the government, which deemed the names too offensive.

In some cases, parents appeared to have lost any inspiration for coming up with a moniker for their offspring, naming the family's latest addition simply "2nd", "3rd" or "5th."

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Tsarnaev apparently used the account, @jmaister1, to like a photo of a deceased Chechen warlord. He also liked photos that used hashtags such as #FreeChechenia, #Jihad, #Jannah, #ALLAH, #Jesus, and #God.

While the account is gone, CNN was able to find some of the content posted to it using archiving tools like Google's Web cache.

In its Terms of Service, Instagram says that if subpoenaed, it will turn over users' information. However, it notes that the information might only be stored for a short time due to the volume of content that floods the service.

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This is at this point pretty thin. "Talks" doesn't mean much. Gingrich and Cutter might be part of a whole bench of hosts. But it does suggest that CNN is going about a "Crossfire" launch in just about the worst way possible. Those hoping for a smarter version of the old show will definitely be disappointed.

Stephanie Cutter has spent her entire career as a campaign flack. Her job has been, for years, to spin reporters. (This job leads to becoming a political news media professional strangely often.) Regardless of her intelligence and her ability to speak extemporaneously on camera, she has never demonstrated an ability to be an interesting, independent thinker, and it is fair to predict that as a TV pundit she'd be representing "The Democratic Party" and not "liberalism."

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Although a source told Politico that CNN is only having talks with the Obama adviser and former speaker of the House, Twitter ran with the rumor:

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On Tuesday, CNN chief national correspondent John King -- a Boston native -- addressed the network's blunder, telling D.C. radio station WTOP, "The one thing you have to do is look straight in the camera and say, 'We were wrong.'"

"It's my city, too, so it's sort of a double kick in the head to me," King said. "But, the best way to deal with it is to say 'We made a mistake. Here's how we made a mistake.' And then move on."

He explained that he relied on two sources "who have been reputable in the past who simply had bad information."

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When other networks switched over to news anchors, CNN stayed on the scene in Watertown, Mass., despite having no news to report:

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CNN -- which erroneously reported Wednesday that an arrest in the case had been made -- cited a U.S. government source.

The network reports that:

Preliminary interviews with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev indicate the two brothers fit the classification of self-radicalized jihadists, the source said. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, wounded and held in a Boston hospital, said his brother wanted to defend Islam from attack, according to the source.

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From Glenn Beck to John King, a roundup of the very worst coverage on the tragedy in Boston:

Alex Jones and the "false flag" conspiracy 

As Salon's Alex Seitz-Wald previously reported, Alex Jones and others on the conservative fringe wasted no time in launching paranoid theories pinning the Boston tragedy to an elaborate government plot:

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What a week.

As events unfolded in Boston, and then in Texas, and as they continue to unfold at this very moment in both places, CNN has been there for our audience in every possible way – on television, online and on our mobile platforms. As Wolf would say, that was true for our audiences here in the United States and around the world. For journalists like each of us, these are the times that define what we do and why we do it. All of you, across every division of CNN Worldwide, have done exceptional work. And when we made a mistake, we moved quickly to acknowledge it and correct it. It was important to see CNN, CNN.com, HLN and CNNI all shine this week, often with different stories and different approaches that make each of their roles clear. It is a week that began with a whole new genre of programming for CNN, with the successful premiere of Parts Unknown. Now, as the week comes to a close, I wanted to express my deep gratitude and admiration. You have worked tirelessly, around the clock, to share these stories. And our audiences have responded, making it clear that they rely on us in ever increasing ways. In front of the cameras and behind the scenes, you have shown the world what makes us CNN.

With my thanks and appreciation,

JEFF

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A federal law enforcement source "with knowledge of the investigation" told the network that the suspects stayed and watched as the two bombs exploded, then simply walked away from the horrific scene.

"When the bombs blow up, when most people are running away and victims were lying on the ground, the two suspects walk away pretty casually," said the source -- who CNN reported has seen the footage.

Officials found the behavior noticeable, the source said, because "they acted differently than everyone else."

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"No one who does this in a breaking news environment has not had this happen. You feel that you've let down the organization and the audience. It is a very difficult moment."

Brown, who is now a professor at Arizona State University, told Salon that his students had asked about the King reporting throughout the day. "I told them it never would have happened this badly on my watch," he joked, before turning serious. "The role of the anchor is to say: This is true. And these things are very chaotic. [CNN should have indicated] 'What we can say for sure is that the case moved significantly today." Brown suggested that King and NBC News' Pete Williams were using sources from entirely different spheres, with Williams operating with federal sources in Washington, while "my guess is that [King] was getting stuff from local or law enforcement or courthouse people; his sources were state people."

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This scoop was credited to CNN reporter John King, who, as of this writing, is not on air. Less than an hour later, CNN declared there had been an arrest.

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Other news outlets chased CNN, with the Associated Press and Fox News reporting a similar story shortly after 1 p.m. in each case.

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But by 1:43, CNN had cited the Department of Justice and Boston Police Department in their claim that no arrest was made.

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CNN's tweets about the events in Boston today link to a liveblog whose URL ends "source-arrest-made-in-boston-bombing/." King's reporting for CNN, preserved in the liveblog, indicates that the police "identified a suspect based on an analysis of video from a Lord & Taylor department store near the site of the second blast, and that video from a Boston TV station also helped."

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After officials discovered a video from Lord & Taylor with an image of a suspect, conflicting reports emerged on the status of the case. This afternoon, the AP and CNN misreported that a suspect had been arrested in the Boston explosion case, with CNN even citing the person in custody as a "dark-skinned male" while CBS said Boston police were searching for a white male. NBC and CBS said no arrests had been made and CNN and the AP later backtracked on the arrest claims, saying federal sources deny that a suspect is in custody.

Twitter had a field day:

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In his press conference, White House spokesman Jay Carney confirmed that a letter with a suspicious substance had been sent to President Obama but referred further questions to the FBI. He also referred questions about the Boston attack investigation to the FBI.

UPDATE 4/17 11:36 a.m.

The AP is reporting that authorities have a suspect in mind but didn’t say much more:

Police have a suspect in mind as they investigate a letter mailed to Sen. Roger Wicker that tested positive for poisonous ricin, a Senate colleague said.

“The person that is a suspect writes a lot of letters to members,” Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said Tuesday as she emerged from a classified briefing.

UPDATE: 4/17 11:28 a.m.

The president may have received one as well:

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UPDATE: 4/17 10:50 a.m.

ABC News' Terry Moran tweeted:

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UPDATE No. 2: Politico is now reporting that a suspect in the case has been identified.

From Glenn Thrush:

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Of course not -- there was no such thing. But amid the fear and chaos of that day, that was among the many rumors that spread quickly, making the early coverage of the day's tragedy seem all the more dramatic and upsetting.

False information also spread yesterday. There was former congresswoman Jane Harman on CNN, warning of additional attacks because "A signature of al-Qaida is simultaneous attacks." Never mind that we still don't know who was behind the bombing. The New York Post cited 12, rather than the two deaths first confirmed by officials. And the question of just how many "unexploded devices" there were in the city of Boston hung over the day, as this Examiner piece extrapolating from a Bloomberg News tweet proves.

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Blitzer did not, in fact, mention the Tea Party, but said: “One intriguing notion, one intriguing thought here, and I’m curious, Mike, and I’ll ask Matt to weigh in as well. It is a state holiday, in addition to the Boston Marathon. It is a state holiday in Massachusetts today called Patriots' Day, and who knows if that has anything at all to deal — to do with these, these twin explosions.”

Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, demanded on Monday that Blitzer apologize, picking up on the false narrative that Blitzer's comments had politicized the attack:

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Blitzer responded on Tuesday:

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The first bomb was detonated at about 2:45 P.M. local time near one of the many classic storefronts lining the marathon’s home stretch. The second explosive followed within minutes about 50 to 100 yards away. Law enforcement later found and dismantled at least two more explosive devices, according to various news reports.

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) such as those used to attack the marathon are sometimes triggered remotely by cell phones. The Associated Press initially reported that law enforcement had the cell network in the vicinity of the finish line shut down after the incident, but later reports contradicted this, indicating that problems receiving a signal were due to the volume of cell phone users on the network.

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