I'm willing to give TMZ a pat on the back when they deserve it. For instance, whenever there's a huge breaking story going on, like Paris getting sent to jail or Britney's custody battle, TMZ is really the only place to go for minute-by-minute updates. They've got the boots on the ground, the sources, the fast-reacting monkeys in the newsroom to hammer out the latest posts. They're great at that. However, lately they seem to be getting a tad arrogant. An example: This post about Lindsay Lohan getting out of rehab. It reads in part:
TMZ has learned Lindsay Lohan has checked out of Cirque Lodge, the residential rehab facility she has been in since August, but rehab is still very much a part of her life.
Sources connected to the actress tell us she has moved to a non-residential program to continue her treatment at the Utah facility, which will include drug testing and various meetings with professionals.
Really TMZ - she checked out of Cirque Lodge but is staying in out-patient for awhile. And you just found that out "exclusively" as you claim on your post (with your little red "exclusive" banner over your typically unflattering picture of Lindsay). Kind of funny, cause I posted that same story yesterday morning. And I got it from the Post Chronicle which gets a lot of their stuff from WENN and BANG. So, basically, that story has been in the cycle for about a day. Yet you're reporting it "exclusively" as of today.
See, here's the thing TMZ - it's okay if you're occasionally a little late on a story. There are lots of stories, and everyone can't catch everything. So, when it does happen that something gets through your net, there's no reason to be ashamed. Just run the story, source it, and get on with life. You don't prove anything by stamping the story "exclusive" when every blog on earth, including irrelevant lame ones like mine, has already had it for over 24 hours. Maybe you trick the people who only read your site into thinking you're on top of things - but people who read a multitude of sites, which I assume is the case for the majority of celeb-watchers, are only going to find it odd that you tried to claim a story as your own that they've read about twenty times already. Frankly it seems a bit arrogant to me. "We're TMZ, so it hasn't happened until we say it happened." Sure TMZ. And that TV show of yours is cutting-edge. Please, don't insult us, all right? You have a good site (as long as one doesn't mind the odd bit of irresponsible and shoddy journalism). Don't ruin it by crawling up your own ass.
