This time, we'll let Gawker take on TMZ

The Hollywood website Defamer had been on the verge of revolutionizing Hollywood entertainment reporting into something democratic and told by the footsoldiers inside, when they were steamrolled and paved over by the sleazy, amoral antics of shaved bronzed local news reject midget Harvey Levin and his band of bumboys at the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com.

But while Defamer retreated to the couch in a fuzzy pink robe and bunny slippers to spend the day watching and posting clips from The View and Ellen, Gawker, its mothership alone has stood alongside us and Ray Richmond's Past Deadline site to hold the AOL Time-Warner webhole accountable for the excrement it smears across the pop culture we helped create. We went on about the latest outrage yesterday.

Today, Gawker is equally disgusted, as TMZ tops itself:

SHUT UP
TMZ Continues To Be a Piece Of Shit

I've already ranted about the hideousness of TMZ, so I'll spare you a repeat. But it is worth noting that they've once again thrown decency out the window and named (and pictured!) a minor involved in a possible statutory rape case. A fourteen-year-old son of a celebrity has apparently been having sex with an older woman, and TMZ thought it appropriate and fun to post his name and a picture (from when the poor kid was ten). Joke as you may about "what a lucky kid!" or whatever, but there are certain standards of practice (and legality?) in this "industry," and publishing the name of a minor, especially one involved in a sex abuse case, just ain't right.

But who cares, right?

While Gawker gawks, Harvey Levin takes 12"

We’ve been keeping an eye on the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com for close to two years now, occasionally pausing to point out its unfairness, immorality, illiteracy, crassness, soullessness, perversity, coprophilia and generally bad and wrongheaded execution of the tabloid form— and for too long have gotten the impression that, to paraphrase the hateful TMZ, nobody gave a sh*t.

Well, gradually, the dead-horse beating seems to be paying off. Long after the great Hollywood Reporter columnist Ray Richmond lent his respected support, the New York-based Gawker.com has begun to take notice.

Thanks to recent staff turnover at the influential media site, fresh eyes viewed our criticism of TMZ’s cruel mockery of the death of American Idol good guy Elliott Yamin’s mother, and this week Gawker noticed that TMZ reported on the death of powerful celebrity Cameron Diaz's father, but "has not yet tried to make an awful joke about it.”

This morning, Gawker points out some of the more distasteful, pornographic and disgusting recent TMZ headlines— something we’ve been bringing to your attention for months now:


In addition to making fun of your mother's death and mocking people for supposedly aging prematurely, Harvey Levin's TMZ loves to write oh-so-clever sex-pun headlines. The one pictured ran with a story about Britney Spears being ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawyer's fees… Some more… will help you develop the vital skill of applying a dick joke to virtually any situation:

Nanny’s Folks—Rob Lowe Worked Her To The Bone
Beckham Likes It Tight and Right
Lowe’s Employees Say They’ve Never Met Lil’ Rob
You Can’t Keep Dick Down.

The timing of the post, by the way, cheated Gawker out of this morning’s crop (and this list is real):

Jenna Jameson: Shuck It, Slurp It
Godzilla to Subway: I Got Your 12” Right Here
Dita -- Where'd You Get Those F**k Me Pumps?
Finger It Like Baby Beckham
Lohan's Face Matches the Carpet
Von A-hole Picks the Gayest Fight Ever
Heidi and Spencer -- More Whoring To Come
Posh Pissed on by Kitson Owner?
Dr. Jan In the S**t for Fast Livin'

And that's just this morning. So far. The wives of TMZ’s corporate overlords, as well as AOL and Time Warner shareholders must be very proud to be associated with the site fronted by shaved bronzed midget Harvey Levin.

But there's something even more malodorous and foul that's been reeking from TMZ in recent days: the smell of feet, freed of socks, being licked.

We'll get to that later today.

Exclusive! Kate Coe ankles Fishbowl LA

Kate Coe, one of L.A.’s most influential Internet journalists and critics, has parted ways with MediaBistro’s Fishbowl LA website. The ankling amid a dispute over money (Kate says she was "fired") could be an indication of a revolt within MediaBistro similar to the one that led to an exodus from Nick Denton’s Gawker Media company earlier this year, and is a clear indicator of the battle now shaping up between Internet entrepreneurs like MB's Laurel Touby and experienced journos and writers who are used to, and rely on, getting paid for their work.

Kate is not only among the brightest lights in the online industry of combining pithy comments with links to other people's news stories, she's also a wicked and witty media critic and brave investigative reporter whose groundbreaking coverage of the mysterious pretty artist suicides of Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake led to smear attacks that labeled her “a CIA mockingbird” with “’Jackie Collins Presents’ on her resume”-- which sound to us like a solid enough basis for KateCoe.com to move in where other local websites haven’t gone-- because they won't pay people to do the work.

"SHUT THIS THING DOWN, PLEASE!" Gawker Media joins our protest against filthy TMZ.com

"I can find nothing entertaining or redeeming
in any of the site's content.
It's all just base and poorly written
and arbitrarily amoral.
I'm just as complicit in the whole awful
celebrity-industrial complex as they are,
but good god let's try to have a little style
while we ruin people's lives, eh?"

--Gawker.com

For a while there, we thought we were shouting into the wind when it came to the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com.

Could we, old tabloid-loving, tabloid television pioneering hacks that we are, be the only ones who are really, physically repulsed by the coprophiliac power bottom filth they pinch out on an hourly basis? Are we the only ones who are appalled that the genre we helped create was taken over by the shaved bronzed midget Harvey Levin-- the guy we all laughed at back in the heyday (he was a butch little local news reporter at the time and did a lot of stupid things trying to imitate the trendsetting tabloid shows-- like almost getting the case against OJ Simpson thrown out of court).

For while, it seemed only that Ray Richmond of The Hollywood Report and Past Deadline site, was wise enough-- and in this town, brave enough --to stand up against the scumbags, going as far as to state, "TMZ is the AntiChrist."

But after our rantings against TMZ boys club's senselessly, needlessly cruel jokes about the death of poor Elliot Yamin's beloved mother, other good, smart Internet tabloid journos are joining the fight.

Nick Denton's Gawker.com is based in New York, but this afternoon they took our lead and hit Hollywood's festering pustule with a pop. Under the headline "THINGS I ACTUALLY HATE: TMZ will even make fun of your mother's death," Richard Lawson picks up the Yamin story, adding:

"Instead of simply saying "that was dumb, we're sorry," (TMZ) ran another post that included a poll. If 51% of readers said the line should go, they'd pull it. Almost 100,000 people voted and a resounding 78% wanted it gone. So, they got rid of the offending bit and continued on their merry way. Without ever issuing a measly apology. The woman died two days ago for chrissake. I'm all for an off-color joke, but a little human decency never hurt anyone..."

Then they were nice enough to credit and link to us.

And then, Gawker went even farther:

"You know what's funny about TMZ? No, I'm... uh, I'm actually asking. The site is so screechy and repugnant that I always have to click away before I can remember to look for anything remotely amusing. The way they eagerly roll around in pop shit and gleefully smear it everywhere, because it's so campy and naughty, reminds me of the dumb queens from high school and their haggish friends who would shriek and think they were hysterical because they said 'cum dumpster.' I can find nothing entertaining or redeeming in any of the site's content. It's all just base and poorly written and arbitrarily amoral. I'm just as complicit in the whole awful celebrity-industrial complex as they are, but good god let's try to have a little style while we ruin people's lives, eh? Shut this thing down, please. Oh, and the wretched TV show too. There is no reason to see and hear Harvey Levin and his army of smug little shits every goddamn day."

The item was even picked up up by Gawker's distracted Hollywood cousin, Defamer, which in the past year has kowtowed to the ugly power of Levin's gutter operation. Interesting that a few hours later, Defamer's new managing editor Mark Graham ran another item about TMZ, this one about an old clip, unearthed most recently a few months ago, that shows the decadent Harvey Levin in a more positive light, many years ago, as a student activist.

Did Defamer get a call? More likely, it's the big-budget PR firms hired by TMZ's benefactors, AOL and Time-Warner, earning their pay by controlling the spin, and changing the headline.

But not here, Harvey.