It took hours for TMZ to take down the photos that purportedly showed former One Direction singer Liam Payne’s body on the ground in Buenos Aires.
TMZ’s only amendment to the story was a line that said “TMZ has seen a photo,” but it had no editor’s note.
But how did the photos, which the outlet said it used to confirm Payne‘s death—which police had already announced—end up on the celebrity gossip website’s page at all?
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The photos in question showed portions of Payne’s torso and arm and featured his tattoos, which the outlet said “helped us confirm early reports from witnesses.” Buenos Aires police had already announced the death, however.
Payne, 31, died on Wednesday after falling from his third-floor hotel room‘s balcony. An autopsy on Thursday indicated he died from “multiple trauma” and “internal and external hemorrhage,” and the Public Prosecutor’s Office indicated there was evidence of substance abuse."
TMZ did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and an assistant for founder Harvey Levin said the tabloid legend was on vacation when the story broke in a phone call with the Daily Beast.
A former TMZ employee told the Daily Beast the outlet extensively vets any material it gets before it ends up on the website. A producer would write the story, an editor would edit it, and then it’d get passed to a lawyer for a review. Finally, a small braintrust of its top editors—which includes Levin and co-executive producer Charles Latibeaudiere—would review it before it gets posted.
“They are more rigorous and vigorous in vetting images and videos and reporting than any news organization I’ve worked for,” the former staffer said. “They really put everything through a wringer.”
“They have lawyers looking at every word, every picture, every video clip. They don‘t publish anything without absolute certainty.” the staffer edited. “It’s not a process error.”
The outlet kept the photos up for about two hours before taking them down—without an editor’s note or correction—which opened the door to torrents of criticism for publishing them.
“The photos have now been removed from TMZ,“ CNN reporter Elizabeth Wegmeister wrote on X. ”Disgusting."
“TMZ is trying to get clicks and ad money off of a young man’s dead body just minutes after the news of his death,“ BBC journalist
Shayan Sardarizadeh wrote on X. “Imagine being a member of Liam Payne’s family and seeing this.”
“You’re gross,” singer Alessia Cara also wrote on X.
The ethically questionable outlet has broken some of the biggest stories involving celebrity deaths, including singers Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and NBA legend Kobe Bryant. But the outlet’s past proclivities of faulty editorial decisions have reared their head.
TMZ broke the news that NBA legend Kobe Bryant had died in a horrific helicopter crash in January 2020, though it was chastised by then-Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva for racing to publish before deputies could notify the family. It also mistakenly reported in 2013 that rapper Lil Wayne was receiving his “last rites” after getting treatment for a stroke, another story it amended without a correction.
Not all stories have gotten ghost edits. After the outlet wrongly reported Beyoncé would appear at August’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, it owned up to its mistake in a post on X.
“To quote the great Beyonce: We gotta lay our cards down, down, down … we got this one wrong," it wrote.
