TMZ is facing backlash over photos allegedly showing Liam Payne's body

TMZ, the celebrity news giant, is under fire for publishing an image purporting to show Liam Payne's body after the former boy band One Direction member fell to his death from a hotel balcony on Wednesday.

The cropped image, which the gossip website published as the story was still developing, showed a tattooed arm and stomach. It said the photo of the body on a wooden terrace was taken at a hotel in Buenos Aires and identified Payne, 31, by his tattoos.

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The Hollywood gossip portal removed the picture after a massive outcry online. TMZ did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Thursday.

Zing Tsjeng, Vice's former editor-in-chief, said publishing the doctored images was “completely indefensible,” while singer Alessia Cara called the news outlet “disgusting.”

“TMZ is trying to get clicks and advertising money from the body of a young man, just minutes after news of his death,” BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh posted on X. “Imagine being a member of Liam Paynes Family and would see that.” TV critic Scott Bryan said: “TMZ should remember that the people they report on are people – someone's son, someone's father too.”

According to screenshots of the text accompanying the photo, TMZ originally wrote, “We're not showing the full body, but you can clearly see his tattoos – a clock on his left forearm and a scorpion on his stomach.”

The photos were later removed and the text was edited to say that TMZ “saw a photo showing Liam's body on the hotel patio with tables and chairs nearby” and that the visible tattoos “helped us confirm early reports from witnesses to confirm.” ”

Paul Lashmar, a journalist specializing in media ethics at City University of London, said there are some cases where publishing a photo of a corpse is justified – for example, to illustrate the horrific scale of war or when the issue is serious is in the public interest. But in general, Lashmar said, “it is unethical to display the body of someone who died under tragic circumstances.”

“Showing someone’s body under any circumstances can be stressful and uncomfortable for that person’s family members and their friends. This is something you don’t normally do,” he said. “Also, with human empathy you would think, 'If this happened to me, would I want someone to post a photo of it?'”

Payne, who was born in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, is survived by his parents, two sisters and a seven-year-old son named Bear, whom he shared with his ex-partner and British singer Cheryl, whose maiden name is Cheryl Tweedy.

Authorities said the circumstances of Payne's death after a fall from the third floor of his room at the Hotel CasaSur Palermo in Argentina were unclear and were under investigation.

TMZ, which has made a name for itself in recent years by being the first to break a series of high-profile stories, has previously come under scrutiny for its coverage of celebrity deaths.

After Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash along with his daughter and seven others in 2020, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department criticized the outlet during a press conference for allegedly publishing its story before officials could notify the families . “It would be extremely disrespectful to understand that your loved one … died and you hear about it from TMZ,” then-Sheriff Alex Villanueva said. TMZ founder Harvey Levin later claimed that TMZ spoke with Bryant's representatives before publishing the story.

“I think the lesson to be learned is that when you run a news website based on exclusive, sensational material, you have to be very careful ethically because the temptation is to always go one step further “go better than other news organizations,” Lashmar said. “That one step can often involve dubious ethical territory.”

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