There have been rumors swirling around for months, years maybe, that the L.A.-based gossip website TMZ was planning to stretch its reach into D.C. with a new site. On Monday, TMZ founder Harvey Levin said this wasn’t just gossip. “It’s going to have happen someday, it’s my passion,” Levin told an audience at the National Press Club. “I want to do TMZ D.C. more than anything.” What’s currently stopping Levin is a full plate back in Los Angeles, but he already knows what TMZ D.C. would be. “What I want to do is I want to make TMZ D.C. a personality-based site, not because it’s going to be the most important material, but it’s going to introduce people to politics on a level that they can relate to,” he said.
Levin used TMZ’s previous coverage of Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill, as an example. “The joke was we were going to make him the Brody Jenner of Washington, D.C.,” Levin said. TMZ shirtless pictures and interviews with Schock practically made him a household name, though it was a hard sell to his press secretary. “But they ultimately realized, ‘hey this is working,’ and they were really smart enough to play ball and it really helped him,” Levin said.
It helps that there are, in general, lines that Levin and TMZ won’t cross. For one, Levin doesn’t out people. “No, we wouldn’t out anybody, we don’t out celebrities,” he acknowledged. TMZ refused to publish pictures of Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Phelps allegedly smoking from a bong. And when the court accidentally released very personal and hurtful information on Britney Spears, Levin called up the pop star’s lawyer and gave her a heads up so the documents could be sealed. “I mean, we are aggressive reporters, but that felt wrong,” he said.
As when TMZ D.C. might launch, Levin couldn’t give a date. “We are going to do politics next year I just don’t know if we’re going to be able to do TMZ D.C. as a formal site,” he said.
