It is possible to see the legacy of Walter Winchell, the newspaper gossipmonger who dominated radio and TV from the 1930s to the 1950s, in what TMZ does. Winchell’s quick-fire radio and TV shows, where he delivered news and gossip, accompanied by clattering telexes, gave him enormous power, and he perfected the use of slang to avoid legal disputes, promising his listeners each week the lowdown on celebrity and politics, “the very very low low down down.” But Winchell wasn’t really into camera-up-skirt content. In some ways, TMZ is the National Enquirer for the Internet age.
It is clear that the site now has the power that Winchell once had. Smith waits to see if TMZ can build on its Jackson success. “The problem is, it’s hard to maintain it. The large majority of their stuff is just fluff. I don’t have a problem with that because we are supplying most of that fluff,” he says.
Keith Kelly sees it as on a mission to expose news that publicists want to keep a lid on. “So in a sense they are outsiders, which in a sense is what journalists should be — they shouldn’t be part of the power structure.”
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