The world was shocked on Sunday, January 26th to learn about the tragic death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gigi in a helicopter accident in Los Angeles.
The news was first broken by TMZ.
It was later reported that TMZ had posted the story online before law enforcement had time to notify the family of the victims, and that they may have found out about the tragedy through social media.
Star of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Ellen Pompeo took to Twitter to express her unhappiness with the situation.
Pompeo, who plays the titular Meredith Grey on the popular ABC drama, initially shared a link to a petition calling for Fox to cancel TMZ “after what they did to Kobe’s family.”
Addressing Harvey Levin, the founder of TMZ, she said, “You are disgusting.”
Pompeo then posited that TMZ posting this story, and their past coverage of stories including infamously releasing a photograph of a bruised Rihanna that was later identified as police evidence, amounted to abuse.
Pompeo began tweeting about the dubious way TMZ gets sources.
“Why is this guy still in business at all?” She asked, while her followers seemed to agree with her in the replies.
Pompeo also called into question TMZ’s claims that they do not pay for sources.
Responding to a fan who replied that someone involved in the aftermath of the accident must have provided the information to TMZ, Pompeo suggested it wasn’t “hard to figure out.”
However, Pompeo rejected the idea that it’s the fault of the first responders.
While it may have been a first responder who leaked the information to TMZ, Pompeo argued that “we don’t go after first responders, we celebrate them.”
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She insisted that the issue was with TMZ, not the people who might just be trying to make money by supplying information.
Pompeo pointed out that TMZ has a history of having access to information and photos that they should not have and sharing them irresponsibly.
She called into question the legitimacy of Levin’s excuse that he just has “friends” in law enforcement that provide him information.
Even if that is true and there is no exchange of money, Pompeo calls into question why it’s acceptable for Levin to have a “friend” supplying him with this information in the first place.
Pompeo referred to people who believed Levin as “idiots.”
She also referred to the idea that Levin simply has well-connected friends as a “simpleton excuse.”
“We have the HIPAA law in the health field to not release any personal info. They definitely need something like that for law enforcement,” agreed one fan.
Some people defended TMZ, however, with one fan writing, “TMZ IS A NEWS OUTLET. They have every right to get the story first. It doesn’t matter who got the story first. They have connections.”
Pompeo concluded her rant by telling Levin that she hopes he sleeps well at night.
Levin has responded in an interview saying that “Kobe’s people” had told TMZ “very clearly” that Vanessa had already been notified before they broke the story, but concluded that it was “a fair point” when the families of the other victims were brought up.
