A social media user articulated their revulsion clearly: "TMZ posting part of a photo of Liam Payne's dead body in an article announcing his death is beyond deplorable. I can't tell if I'm losing my mind lately or if society has always been this overtly morally decrepit."
Singer Alessia Cara also lashed out at TMZ, directly rebuking: "you're gross @TMZ," as another dismayed fan joined the wave of condemnation against the outlet's insensitive conduct: "I know we complain about TMZ a lot but they really surprise me every time at how insensitive they can be."
Despite the uproar, TMZ's executive producer Michael Babcock defended their decision to publish contentious images during a Fox 5 New York interview on Thursday, October 17.
He justified the move by saying: "There's a balance, and that's obviously a conversation that newsrooms across the world have you want to be sensitive to the family and to the friends and also while working a news story."
Elaborating on the events, he continued, "When the information was coming in, police had not yet confirmed that it was Liam, so what was done on the TMZ website, there was an image did not show the full image, didn't show his face but that showed his arm and his abdomen, where he has some very recognizable tattoos, so that's sort of used as a way to confirm or to match up the tattoos at a point where police had not yet confirmed his identity. And then, once they did, obviously, that photo was removed."
Reflecting on the misfortune, he added, "I mean, it's just a terribly horrific and sad story. It's something obviously that shouldn't have happened, and this guy had so much life left to live and you feel horrible for everybody."
Despite these explanations, fans remained upset, with one fuming commenter writing on the video clip: "Are they really still trying to justify putting pictures of a dead body on their website?." Another incensed individual expressed: "TMZ is disgraceful and disgusting and have no respect whatsoever and didn't even bother to apologize for posting those horrendous pictures! ! ! Will never watch them again! ! ".
Another critical voice stated: "[It's] not TMZ's job to 'identify' the body," highlighting that "That is the job of the police/coroner to confirm. Revolting way to justify."
Echoing the sentiments, a fan pointed out: "The real issue is who from the staff at the hotel or medical team sold the original image. None of the public had access to that specific viewpoint at that time. Snapping that picture on your phone and selling it is grossly immoral."
Payne, formerly of the smash-hit boy band One Direction, shot to fame on The X-Factor and soared to success with the group. After their split in 2016, Liam carved out a solo career, dropping his own album LP1, and welcomed a son with ex-X-factor judge Cheryl Cole.
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Comments / 2
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Marylou Saporito
2h ago
wow
Faye
7h ago
But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself. đ đ To Family
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