TMZ's Harvey Levin On Jackson Scoop: "We Just Beat Everybody On This One... Too Bad, So Sad" (VIDEO)

TMZ scooped the traditional media when it broke the news of Michael Jackson's death, and has been steadily earning more respect as it forges its own path among the mainstream media. CNN's Don Lemon interviewed TMZ founder Harvey Levin about his ambitious media company and their big scoop.

Lemon: You broke the story before the time of death from the coroner.

Harvey: Well, before it was officially announced. We really knew this significantly before even what was going on, but this was, you know, crossing every t. We were positive when we put it up. We put it up when we were 100% positive.

Asked by Lemon how he feels when mainstream outlets rely on TMZ reporting and yet are reluctant to cite or link to him, Levin dismisses the question as one he's not interested in. He says his only interest is in the story:

I think what happened is that again we just beat everybody on this one. And there are people who feel like wow we should have gotten that. Well, too bad, so sad.

Lemon on Sunday went on CNN's Reliable Sources to defend the extensive coverage of Michael Jackson's death, calling critics "elitist" and Jackson an "accidental civil rights leader."

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Comments

[frantaylor]

Who cares?

Do we live richer lives because we got the news 5 minutes earlier?

[Bryant Turnage]

Maybe, but getting "the scoop" is as old as the image of newsboys standing on the corner shouting, "Extra, extra!" - and probably far older than that. Getting it right is almost as important as getting it first in the news biz.

[pickwickianmom]

Bryant, can you believe that people don't even understand the value of a scoop in journalism anymore? Jeesh.

[Manthan Bhatt]

TMZ is almost as bad as fox news in the ethics department.

[ZimboChick]

Almost?

[maisnon55]

I can seriously say that I would take the word of TMZ over Fox any day of the week.

[bazokbros]

But there is the issue of ethics if TMZ is more concerned, and any other media outlet, scooping a death of someone before family finds out. That I find completely reprehensible because that's how the Jackons's brothers and nephew's and nieces found out.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

Sadly, it's the price one pays for fame in today's world.

[pickwickianmom]

Michael Jackson was very famous. he had built something of a wall around his family. the fact that the press found out about this first doesn't speak badly of the press.

[singlemalt]

Why do I think the folks at TMZ were thrilled beyond belief when they heard that Michael Jackson died?
TMZ is hiring: Sick minds needed. Those with morals and ethics need not apply.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

TMZ is owned by the RNC... who knew?

[Hopeington]

Surely you jest

[mikxel]

When is TMZ opening a DC branch? Call it the PLZ or Pierre L’Enfant Zone.

[socialtalker]

they probably keep people on payroll at all the hospitals celebrities are likely to be taken to.

[Rolfe Norman]

I am sure TMZ was not 100% sure when they posted the story of Michael Jackson's death. They tend to jump the gun on some stories. I find it hard to trust anything I read on TMZ. TMZ is hardly a reliable source.

[pickwickianmom]

What story was not reliable on tmz in the past year? Go ahead and name one. I read it and haven't found an instant of that.

This is all just elitist bulls":tt. I read the NYT, the Washington Post, Paul Krugman, Kristof, The New Yorker, the Atlantic.
And I read TMZ.
Like it or not, they are out there trying to get some stories (especially when they experiment with political coverage) and they are doing a decent job.

Wasn't it Gertrude Stein who said read great literature and trashy literature and nothing in the middle.

I've heard the same bashing of tabloids like the Enquirer for years and they uncovered John Edwards mistress. And not just a mistress that was his own private issue, a mistress who was being paid through campaign funds and donors. Making it more of a story for the public.

Tmz isn't as mean as the Enquirer, though, like I said earlier, I don't want to eat dinner with the guy in charge. He's doing a good job, and he certainly has some talented, tenacious staff who shouldn't be written off because they work for that particular website.

[Jenjohnson]

did they have something to do with his death.... they seem to know so much that everybody else doesn't

[Bude]

Sounds like a conspiracy to me.

[SmootyBooty]

the point is TMZ knows that they get paid for the celeb dish, but they wouldn't for uncovering fiscal malfeasance in the govt...

[pickwickianmom]

They sent reporters to uncover expensive banking vacations during the bailouts. They are running around Argentina looking for information on Sanford's soul mate. She is a story because a governor from S.C. disappeared off the radar, wasn't available to his staff in case of emergency, lied about his whereabouts, used state funding, and is now in full lame duck status due to this story. So...she is a story. It may be uncomfortable, but it's a story.

I think a lot of people are posting here against tmz who do not read tmz.

[lj9283]

When you base the integrity of your stories on unconfirmed reporting, then you can scoop journalists who will confirm a story before reporting it.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

Like FAUX Noise did on election night 2000.

[pickwickianmom]

The only good, valid point made in the argument against tmz. However, I've read newspapers who have had to hide identities to get major stories out. Good newspapers don't like to do it, but it appears they will do it.

[Forester]

Is Harvey Levin the future of journalism?

[MICHELLEDIANE3]

LETS HOPE NOT.

[SmootyBooty]

actually, he's the past. read up on early 20th century reporting...

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

I wouldn't call this journalism.

[pickwickianmom]

Really? Define journalism.

[pickwickianmom]

He's no different than the early newspapers from the 17th century. when did people get the idea that newspapers and media were always tidy white-glove affairs?

[Wiseronenow]

No, Harvey, you may broke the story but you DIDN'T get the m/o/n/e/y s/h/o/t. OK! did. Must s/t/i/n/g/

[bowthai]

I think I saw it on TMZ first.

[redsongia]

Is he gloating that he was the first vulture to circle?

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

No, he was the first vulture to land and start feeding on MJ's warm, emaciated corpse.

[pickwickianmom]

really? I thought it might be the hundreds of people who allowed Jackson to get in the condition he was in---including the addition of 50 shows he publicly stated he didn't have the strength to complete.
That would be well before the body was even emaciated.

TMZ wasn't the first vulture to land on Jackson, and I think Jackson's family would agree with me!!!

[Hagrid]

Harvey is hilarious!

He's a lawyer . . . and he represents the Lollypop Guild

[CyndiC]

TMZ is very low on the totem pole. After what they did to Alec Baldwin's daughter with the phone call and ambushing Alec like that was reprehensible. You would think after all the exploitation of his sister's murder Harvey would have some restraint.

[pickwickianmom]

I'm a fan of Alec Balwin, but maybe he needed to be called out for what he said to his daughter. Sometimes we aren't aware of how we sound until the truth is right in front of us.

My guess is that Alec became more careful about what he said to his kid after that.

So it might just have been the best thing. Sometimes we continue behavior that we can hide.