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TMZ has only been in Washington DC for a matter of weeks, but the salacious gossip website is already having an impact: hounding politicians, tracking vacationing members of Congress and reporting on a senator taking a trip to Disney World.

It’s been quite the start as the website and TV channel attempts to break into the political scene, with its first focus on members of Congress taking a two-week recess – typically meaning the politicians return to their home districts and states to meet constituents – during a record partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

As that recess approached, TMZ put out a typically tabloid-y appeal.

“As TSA officers are selling their blood to keep a roof over their heads, members of Congress are packing their bags for a 2-week vacation, and WE WANT THE PICS!” an article read.

“Since compromise isn’t working, maybe some shame will, and that’s why we’re asking everyone to be on the lookout over the next 2 weeks for the folks who ‘work’ on Capitol Hill, enjoying their leisure time.”

TMZ mischaracterized what was actually happening – it wasn’t a vacation – but the move paid off.

The outlet soon had photos of Lindsey Graham, the senator from South Carolina, spending time at Disney World in Florida: preparing to ride Space Mountain and holding what seemed to be a bubble wand. It was the kind of scoop any DC news organization would be proud of, and it was followed up by CNN, the Hill, The Daily Show and more.

Clearly pleased with the result, the website kept the journalistic focus on the recess, which would have served as a more noble endeavor had TMZ not misrepresented it as a “two-week vacay”. Still, it was offering a fresh perspective: highlighting a practice – in this case, how little time members of Congress actually spend doing work in the Capitol – which may be obvious to Washington insiders, but which has the potential to raise the ire of regular folk.

While the amount of recess breaks members of Congress get is standard information for someone from Politico or the Washington Post, TMZ covered it as if it were a new issue: “Our 2-Week Vacay Wasn’t Enough, So Let’s Do It Again!!!” read a headline in late April, reporting on another recess in early May.

That line of somewhat misguided reporting led TMZ to a story when it came across Dan Meuser, a rather obscure Republican representative from Pennsylvania. One of the website’s reporters, Charlie Cotton, addressed Meuser by saying: “It’s good to see you, bro,” before adding: “I’m a bit frustrated that Congress is going on another break right now” while a DHS bill had not been passed.

After Meuser waffled about constituency work, before blaming Democrats, Cotton pointed out that Republicans hold both the House and the Senate. He kept on going, prompting Meuser to say: “You’re not being respectful. Don’t talk to me any more,” later adding: “Talk to the fucking Democrats,” before quickly walking off.

It was pretty tenacious reporting, and the adversarial nature would surely please anyone who had watched reporters toady up to politicians. But TMZ’s write-up of the video left out important context.

“Things got heated when Charlie pressed Meuser, saying the Republicans have the majority in both chambers, so why can’t they pass a bill funding DHS?” TMZ wrote.

“Meuser fired back, it takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass the bill and left Charlie with these words – ‘Talk to the f***ing Democrats!’”

Including Meuser’s answer without clarifying information made it look like both Republicans and Democrats were the problem: in reality, the Senate had already voted in favor of a DHS funding bill, and it was the Republican-controlled House that was not passing legislation. It was disingenuous for Meuser to claim the Senate, or Democrats, had anything to do with that process. A different news organization, with more experienced staff, might have pointed that out. TMZ did not.

Some of the reporting has been less high-minded than the focus on a government shutdown, like in mid-April, when TMZ cornered Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, who had been in the news after it emerged he once cut the penis off a road-killed raccoon. TMZ asked Kennedy what he had done with the raccoon penis: the secretary did not respond, but the footage was reasonably amusing.

That’s partly the goal. Harvey Levin, the TMZ founder, has said the DC presence “will sometimes be fun, sometimes intensely serious”, and TMZ’s staff have so far mimicked TMZ’s better-known Hollywood reporting, in just walking up to people and asking them questions.

That has required some studying. There are 535 members of Congress, and in April, Cotton posted a photo on X that appeared to show every member of the Senate and the House – essential reading for reporters trying to happen across politicians.

While there may be some excitement, TMZ has gotten some political stories wrong.

“Multiple sources in the know tell us Queen Bey [Beyoncé] will be the big surprise performer as VP Harris officially accepts the Democratic party’s nomination to run for president,” TMZ reported on 22 August, the day the Democratic National Convention was scheduled to close in Chicago.

“We’re told Chicago PD is on high alert as it’s involved in security for Beyoncé at the United Center arena.”

It turned out TMZ’s multiple sources were not in the know. Beyoncé did not appear at the convention. “Beyoncé was never scheduled to be there. The report of a performance is untrue,” her publicist told outlets. It prompted a correction from TMZ.

“To quote the great Beyonce: We gotta lay our cards down, down, down … we got this one wrong,” TMZ wrote on X.

It wasn’t exactly an apology, and it didn’t suggest a huge amount of sincerity. But while it would be easy to be sniffy about TMZ, its outsider perspective, if trained on the right targets, could be important. As New York Magazine pointed out: “The recent scandal over Eric Swalwell’s much-rumored creepiness and previously unreported sexual misconduct underscored that there is plenty of room for different newsgathering sensibilities.”

If TMZ can expose stories that are known to mainstream journalists, but are not reported in exchange for access, or out of a sense of “this just isn’t how things are done”, then perhaps the less savory aspects of TMZ will be worth it.