Is TMZ a legit news organization?

What I will say is that TMZ has excellent sources. Those sources make it a force to recognize in journalism.

 

TMZ will continue to thrive big-time in Southern CA and will break more and more big stories like the Michael Jackson death because they are everywhere and have sources all over the place. While all the papers from the San Fernando Valley to the Mexican border have cut staffs and lowered standards and aren't out in their communities (even if they claim to be), TMZ has been loading up and their people are all over the Southland, not sitting in an outdated newsroom hoping someone e-mails them a tip. TMZ is aggressive and chases news and stories; you know, like newspapers used to be like.

I'm not big on their paying for stories, but as someone else noted, they didn't sign on to the print industry ethics.

 

TMZ also isn't restrained by worrying whether they get the story right or not. That helps when you get it right, because you'll report it before everyone else. It helps when you get it wrong, too, because you don't really have any credibility to damage.

 

Is TMZ a legit news organization? Hmmmm, I don't know. Does TMZ try to sell access to its reporters via "salons" at the publisher's house? If so, then yeah, guess that makes them legit.

 

Some people make me laugh with their mind farts about legitimacy and ethics and doing things "the right way," as if journalism had ever been some kind of paragon of decency and light.

It's a great irony, after all, that the industry's most prestigious awards are named after the man who basically invented yellow journalism; Joseph Pulitzer is as much responsible for the National Enquirer and its brethren as he is for Columbia's journalism school.

You want to know what the right way really is, fellow journalists? Adapt or die. It's pretty damn simple, actually.

 

Huh? Has TMZ shown any evidence it's unconcerned about getting things right? Has it been wrong about something (major) yet? Is it immune to lawsuits?

 

Yes, TMZ has issued many reports that turned out to be false or unverifiable. No, none of them have been major.

And I did not mean to imply that TMZ is immune from lawsuits. It just doesn't appear that they care much about that possibility.

 

the key question: does tmz make money, or is it just a loss leader? nothing leads me to believe aol is making money.

 

TMZ has an office in NYC, I think...

Doesn't AOL own TMZ?

Is it a legitimate news organization? I know the popular answer would be no, but lately I can't turn on the real news and have them say, "TMZ is reporting this or TMZ is reporting that..."

I doubt the people who work at TMZ are worried about furloughs and layoffs.

 

If you have a presence in LA, NYC and maybe Vegas you're not going to miss much news from an entertainment standpoint.

I live nowhere close to either LA or NYC and TMZ is incredibly popular where I live.

 

I'll put it this way: If the TMZ staff hasn't had wage cuts, layoffs or furloughs in the last year, I'm intrigued.