How celebrity gossip site TMZ got scoop of the decade

Bailey Massey

02 July 2009

At 2.44pm, TMZ informed the arena of his dying. But in America and overseas, many media outlets, put off by TMZ's use of photographers pictures and tabloid agenda, preferred to delay until the more sober and trusted Los Angeles Times bannered Jackson's death on its web site at 2.51pm. "No matter what they assert, folks know we broke the tale. There is no issue about our credibility," he explained. We wouldn't have broadcast it if it were not true.". TMZ isn't an independent blog like Matt Drudge or Perez Hilton, but a reports site backed by a world media company, Time Warner. The site, launched in December 2005 as "a Hollywood and entertainment-centric stories site", is a JV between Telepictures Productions, a division of Warner Brothers , and AOL, which are both divisions of Time Warner.

The

name stands for "thirty mile zone", a 1960s Hollywood studio reference to location filming which has come to mean the area of LA most thickly populated with celebs.

In Feb it ran an exhausting picture of pop star Rihanna after she was roughed up by her hubby, Chris Brown, who was sentenced to probation for 5 years. Instead, the site gains scoops from folks on the ground, who provide TMZ with documents, videos, photographers shots, and the near track on the newest celebrity mishaps from LA's police, courthouse clerks, ambulance crews and nurses. The site's first 2 reports about Jackson variously quoted a heart specialist at UCLA, a source within the infirmary where the stricken star was taken, a Jackson member of the family, and Jackson's pa, Joe. Some of its scoops are, in truth, supplied by publicists. But TMZ in addition has been given free rein to reveal celebrity bad behaviour, even if that might occasionally cause fight with parent company Time Warner. English audiences are used to a diet comprised of tabloids and celebrity gossip mags, but in America TMZ is attacked for its use of photographers photographs and paying tip charges for stories. Levin admits paying for tips but claims its only runs stories it has independently determined. It had the celebrity scoop of the decade with the news of Michael Jackson's death. Now Harvey Levin's miniscule gossip site is a worldwide media player. Sorry, something has gone incorrect and this action can't be finished. Closing this window without pressing "Report" will end in your words being lost.

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