TMZ = Walter Winchell of the '40s
Two zippy quotes from Allison Hope Weiner's 6.25 N.Y. Times piece about Harvey Levin's TMZ. One is Levin himself saying that despite initial reservations about launching a celebrity website, "I started seeing that if you don't have time periods and publishing cycles, you can publish on demand and beat everybody." The other is a non-identified publicist equating Levin's power with that of columnist Walter Winchell in his 1940s heyday. "If you have something you know [TMZ] will like, you tip them to it," he says. "It's kind of the old way you dealt with the old-time gossip columnists...you have to occasionally feed them an item...you have to be in the game with them...if you're a publicist and the only time you call up is to complain about an item, they'll laugh at you."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on June 25, 2007 at 1:13 PM
comment #1
jeffmcm
says ...
Ugh. Disgusting.
Posted by jeffmcm
at June 25, 2007 1:36 PM
comment #2
thevisceral
says ...
TMZ's journalism is revoltingly sloppy. They get things wrong all the time. I guess that goes with the whole being able to update as you go along. You don't mind publishing things without bothering to check them first. You know you can change it. Still, it seems irresponsible sometimes. Really unprofessional.
Posted by thevisceral
at June 25, 2007 2:44 PM