How TMZ gets all those scoops

PLUS ... 9 other things WE LEARNED from The New Yorker's EXPOSÉ ...

The New Yorker has published its much-anticipated feature on TMZ, the Hollywood gossip site known for its explosive, often salacious scoops that transcend the celebrity and sports worlds their subjects inhabit.

In the 10,000-plus-word piece — titled "The Digital Dirt" and published online Monday — New Yorker staff writer Nicholas Schmidle attempts to pull back the curtain on TMZ’s newsgathering operation, led by Harvey Levin, whose ability to obtain “videos and photos that celebrities want to hide” is well documented.

So how does TMZ get its scoops? Short answer: It often pays for them.

Here are 10 things we learned from The New Yorker’s TMZ's exposé, presented in the site’s signature brash editorial style:

TMZ’s TIP LINE receives MORE THAN 100 TIPS ... EVERY DAY ...

On September 29, 2015, an internal e-mail summarizing tips from the previous night referred to “info regarding George Clooney’s wedding,” “a video of a pro athlete getting attacked by a goat,” and “pictures of Meek Mill being incarcerated.” (The e-mail is one of many that were leaked to The New Yorker.) The tip line also recorded a claim that a major pop star “wears a fake booty in her music videos” and employs a “person who makes the fake butts.” Many tipsters ask to be paid, and the site often complies.


TMZ paid MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ... for the Ray Rice VIDEOS ...

On February 19th, four days after the incident at the Revel, TMZ posted a fuzzy clip of [Baltimore Ravens running back Ray] Rice dragging [his wife Janay] Palmer’s limp body from the elevator. (According to a former TMZ photographer, the site paid fifteen thousand dollars. TMZ would not discuss payments or other internal matters, but called this figure overblown.)

[...]

On September 8th, TMZ published a second surveillance video from the Revel. This one, bought for almost ninety thousand dollars, revealed what occurred inside the elevator: after the doors shut, Rice punched Palmer on the left side of her head.


TMZ ... 'resembles AN INTELLIGENCE AGENCY as much as a news organization' ...

In an e-mail from last year, a photographer reported having four airport sources for the day, including “Harold at Delta, Leon at Baggage service, Fred at hudson news, Lyle at Fruit and nut stand.” A former TMZ cameraman showed me expense reports that he had submitted in 2010, reflecting payments of forty or fifty dollars to various sources: to the counter girl at a Beverly Hills salon, for information about Goldie Hawn; to a valet, for Pete Sampras; to a shopkeeper, for Dwight Howard; and to a waiter, for Hayden Christensen. “Everybody rats everybody else out,” Simon Cardoza, a former cameraman for the site, told me. “That’s the beauty of TMZ.”


The MEL GIBSON SCOOP that put TMZ on the map ... CAME FROM A TIP ...

In July 2006, a tipster called a TMZ employee to say that he had just seen Mel Gibson on the side of the Pacific Coast Highway. Levin made some inquiries, and learned that Gibson had been pulled over for driving under the influence, and that he had called the arresting officer a “mother-----r.” Gibson also had launched into an anti-Semitic tirade, saying, “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” Levin went to the Los Angeles County sheriff’s department for confirmation. He was told that his account was “absolutely untrue.” But later that day, he secured a copy of the original police report, which contained four pages, excised from the version on file, detailing Gibson’s anti-Semitic rant. The document supplied both evidence of Gibson’s bigotry and proof that the sheriff’s department had attempted to cover it up.


ALEC BALDWIN once wanted to STAB HARVEY LEVIN and ... WATCH HIM BLEED TO DEATH ...

Baldwin, who has been the subject of several harsh TMZ stories—including one, from 2007, in which the site posted a voicemail recording of Baldwin calling his 11-year-old daughter a “rude, thoughtless little pig”—told me, “There was a time when my greatest wish was to stab Harvey Levin with a rusty implement and watch his entrails go running down my forearm, in some Macbethian stance. I wanted him to die in my arms, while looking into my eyes, and I wanted to say to him, ‘Oh, Harvey, you thoughtless little pig.’ ” Baldwin added, “He is a festering boil on the anus of American media.”


HARVEY LEVIN ... GUN CONTROL reformer???

[In 1968, Sen. Robert F.] Kennedy came to Los Angeles for an event at the Ambassador Hotel. Levin attended. After the speech, as Kennedy was walking through the hotel’s kitchen, an assassin shot and killed him. Soon afterward, Levin formed a local committee called Citizens for a Safe Society, and he lobbied the Reseda city council for a gun-reform initiative that would require prospective gun buyers to complete a written competency test. “Anyone buying a gun should be familiar with its deadly potential,” he told the Los Angeles Times.


'At TMZ, tips often turn into stories WITHIN MINUTES ...'

[On June 25, 2009,] Michael Jackson died. A first responder, upon arriving at Jackson’s house, called TMZ to tip off the site. (Ed Winter, the L.A. assistant chief coroner, is also a regular source, according to numerous former employees; Winter says that it is part of his job to speak to reporters.) TMZ confirmed the death through one of Jackson’s security guards and Jackson’s father, Joe, and broke the news eighteen minutes after Jackson stopped breathing.

[...]

On January 20, 2015, at 8:32 a.m., a senior producer sent an internal email that noted, “Got a tip from a friend I know from high school. She didn’t wanna say how she knew, but told me Hope Solo’s husband Jerramy Stevens was arrested in Manhattan beach 2 nights ago for DUI.” (Solo is a top soccer player.) Two minutes later, a senior news producer confirmed the arrest from an online database. At 8:41 a.m., “Hope Solo’s Husband Busted for D.U.I.” appeared on the TMZ home page.


But ... TMZ ... doesn't ALWAYS ACT on its tips ...

In January 2011, an anonymous tipster, using a voice modulator to disguise her identity, called TMZ, offering to sell a compromising video of Justin Bieber. At the time, Bieber was fifteen years old and about to star in a bio-pic, “Never Say Never.” The caller emailed a teaser [that] showed Bieber, sitting alone in a room, singing his hit “One Less Lonely Girl” a cappella. In place of the usual lyrics, Bieber had substituted “n----r” for “girl.” He giggled as he sang.

[...]

In a phone conversation, [Bieber’s manager, Scooter] Braun pleaded with Levin not to post the video, saying, “You’re going to ruin this kid’s life.” Levin hesitated for four seconds, then said that he was moving ahead, and that he would need a statement from Braun by the morning.

[...]

In the morning, Braun and Levin spoke again. Levin confided that he’d been unable to sleep. “A lot of people call me and tell me I’m an asshole — they say, ‘F--- you,’ ” Levin said. “You didn’t. I’m not putting the video up.” Braun broke down in tears. Bieber later called Levin and thanked him.


Once TMZ became successful ... PUBLICISTS began sending in tips ... ABOUT THEIR OWN CLIENTS ...

“They started tipping us off,” [TMZ’s first cameraman Josh] Levine, said. He remembered filming Paris Hilton and her boyfriend at a movie theater in Los Angeles in 2007; Hilton appeared surprised by Levine’s presence, even though, according to Levine, he was acting on a tip from Hilton’s own publicist, Elliot Mintz. Gillian Sheldon told me, “I can’t tell you how many times we got calls from Britney Spears, or her people, who called to say, ‘She’s going to get a tan.’ ”


And TMZ ... was ALMOST CALLED 'BUZZ FEED' ...

The site needed a name, and “Feed the Beast,” “Frenzie,” and “Buzz Feed” were all considered, according to Rowe’s notes. Then, one day, a Telepictures executive suggested “Thirty Mile Zone.” It was an old movie-industry phrase, dating to the mid-twentieth century, which designated the industry’s boundaries in Los Angeles. Levin suggested an abbreviated version: TMZ.