Friday, October 23, 2009

TMZ.com: Watchdog of Democracy?

Mel Gibson's mugshot from his July 28 2006 arr...Image via Wikipedia
First Amendment groupies, clamoring for gutsy journalists to follow the path burned by John Peter Zenger and other ink-stained giants, need look no further than Harvey Levin, founder of TMZ.com, the Web site whose contribution to a free press includes "Beach Bums," featuring close-up photos of celebrity tuchi frolicking in skimpy bathing suits.

Levin will battle the L.A. Sheriff's Dept. in court over what he believes is the law enforcement agency's violation of state and federal laws when it secured a search warrant and obtained TMZ.com telephone records as part of the Sheriff's inquiry into leaked information concerning the 2006 DUI arrest of "Lethal Weapon" star  Mel Gibson in which the devout Christian Australian actor-director-hunk launched into an anti-Semitic rant against his Jewish arresting deputy.

TMZ.com broke the story about "Braveheart's" indecorous behavior, which contradicted the Sheriff Dept.'s spokesperson, who claimed Gibson's arrest occurred without incident.  The L.A. lawmen deny they engaged in illegal activity, noting that they lawfully obtained a warrant signed by a judge and vetted by a prosecuting attorney.  Media lawyers and a bevy of editors are not so sure, decrying the Sheriff rummaging through a "journalist's" phone records as an abuse of power contrary to the tenets of the First Amendment.

Who would have guessed that the moving force behind a Web site that today features stories about Jon Gosselin, Michael Jackson and Kanye West is all that stands between a vital free press and a police state?
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4 comments:

  1. Alan LevineOctober 23, 2009 at 4:01 PM

    I kneel before your neologism, "tuchi." Like the Arch of Titus, it bridges the Jewish and Ancient Roman cultures, but without that structure's sad history. It is a paragon among plurals and shows what a fungi you are.

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  2. Sheldon ToplittOctober 23, 2009 at 4:16 PM

    I beg to differ that tuchi is a made-up word. I can't get behind tookises (alt. sp. tuchises). No other way to describe Hollywood buttocks (botox?)Pretty sure one can't begin a sentence with "butt," as that is a dangling participle, which is more embarrassing than a sagging tuchis. Will await an end note from the rear echelon as I believe etymology is not all it's cracked up to be.

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  3. Alan LevineOctober 26, 2009 at 8:32 PM

    G.I. hadn't thought of that. On the hole, though, I prefer "tuchi."

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  4. Sheldon ToplittOctober 29, 2009 at 5:46 PM

    Very cheeky.

    ReplyDelete

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