TMZ’s Harvey Levin Defends Posting Leaked Rihanna Picture
Posted by Media Outrage on February 23, 2009
TMZ drew the ire of a many people when they released a picture of a clearly bruised Rihanna after the alleged Chris Brown assault. People are funny because everyone wanted to see a picture so they could make their own personal assessement of the damage done and then when TMZ did just that the same people called them unethical but still POSTED the PIC on their damn sites. Funny. Well anyway TMZ’s Harvey Levin had this to say about the events in question…
Via MTV:
Even as the Los Angeles Police Department conducts an internal investigation into how a picture of a battered Rihanna made its way onto the Internet last week, TMZ executive producer Harvey Levin told Fox News that he obtained the disturbing image legally.
“It is a photograph of Rihanna that was taken shortly after the alleged beating a couple of weeks ago,” Levin said during an appearance on Greta Van Sustren’s “On The Record” show on Friday, noting that the LAPD essentially confirmed that the photo was real by launching the investigation. “We, obviously, believed at the time, convincingly, that it was Rihanna and put it up on the site. … I’m not saying anything bad at all about the LAPD. I mean, what they needed to do, they felt, was conduct an internal-affairs investigation because they felt there was a leak. In so doing … they did authenticate the picture.”
Levin would not reveal how TMZ obtained the photo, but he said they did not initially believe that it was an image taken by the LAPD. “And we still are still not convinced it is,” he said of the shot, which drew fire from Rihanna’s father and many fans, who called the leak “inappropriate.”
In launching an investigation into the leak of the photo — which appears to have been taken following the alleged altercation between Rihanna and her boyfriend, Chris Brown, on February 8 — the LAPD said the image “has the appearance of one taken during an official domestic-violence investigation.”
“At the request of the authorities, Rihanna is not commenting about the incident involving Chris Brown,” her representatives said in a statement. “She wants to assure her fans that she remains strong, is doing well, and deeply appreciates the outpouring of support she has received during this difficult time.”
Following the bombshell posting of the post-altercation photo, TMZ also put up an image over the weekend of the singer getting out of a car in Los Angeles on Thursday, one of the first pictures of Rihanna in public since Grammy weekend.
Levin defended the posting of the Rihanna picture, saying that it presents both sides of the story on the alleged incident, which has brought the issue of domestic abuse into the spotlight.
“Chris Brown is not going to just say, ‘I’m going to lie down on this one and not fight,’ ” Levin said of the 19-year-old singer, who issued a statement on February 15 saying he was “sorry and saddened” over the incident. “I guarantee you that Chris Brown is going to mount a defense in this case. I know that. He will mount a defense in this case. So, the picture is not the be-all and the end-all, as far as he’s concerned. … But what it does do is it puts a face on what both sides really have been kind of leaking out over the last couple of weeks. … Well, the bottom line is, here’s the photograph, here’s the end result. And frankly, Greta, I think it’s pretty horrifying.”
Mediaoutrage- We have plenty of compassion for Rihanna and her family being that the picture has been plastered by almost everyone. We just sit back with the raised eye brows at the people who are crying foul despite the fact that everything in them wanted to see the picture. After seeing how disturbing it truly is then they decided that this was unethical and wrong. Money talks. $62,500 talks in any economy. These same outraged media outlets would have killed everybody in they family to get their hands on that picture and post it first which in effect would have driven millions of visitors to their site. They’re just mad it wasn’t them.
ucanb2 said
Stop tripping everybody wanted to see those pictures!The $$ money made someone lose their common sense and put them out there.
That’s how it is, money makes the world go round.
Yeah I Said It said
Give me 62,500 and I will find a pic of anybody you want. I don’t care what kind of pic it is… My morals will go out the window faster than you can spit snot… Yea yea I know I aint shit.
Dickwell Thrust said
Give me 500.00 and a Philly Cheese stake from Pat’s, and i’ll hop out of the bushes on every celebrity with a disposable camera and a pen flashlight butt azz nekid!!!
Media Outrage said
Lmao @ Yea I Said It & DT
LILKUNTA said
Who says harvery paid $62,500 for the pic?
tmz’s website doesnt have alot of ads so how r they gonna recoup the amount that they spent ?
Smurfette said
I don’t care how they got it. They got it. Its everywhere now. And this fiasco should be over now. Now its up to RiRi to keep this from ever happening again. But since she is a lil off in the head, we will probably be seein more pics of her dome jacked up this time next yr! See ya next time RiRi!
claudette4heisman said
Hey TMZ gave the people what they wanted…you can’t get mad at them for that. Damn it didn’t even dawn on me that this happened on February 8th. I guess Rihanna is now a part of the Feb. 8th victims club which includes her, Anna Nicole,and me…..Why do bad things always happen on Feb. 8th?
rayymonloov said
Free Rapidshare Account. I now have a new one so I am giving this one away to mediaoutrage.com users. This still has validity till end of this month.
Login: 9070330
40GB+ bandwidth left
Expires May 25, 09
Click here to download password and other details
Rapidshare changed their policy where they reset the password if the account is accessed from multiple ips. So i havent enabled secuiryt lock. So who so over hurries, can have this account exclusive to themselves.
Early bird gets to change the password. So head here – http://tinyurl.com/crkbst
rayymonloov said
Free Rapidshare Account. I now have a new one so I am giving this one away to mediaoutrage.com users. This still has validity till end of this month.
Login: 9070330
40GB+ bandwidth left
Expires May 25, 09
Click here to download password and other details
Rapidshare changed their policy where they reset the password if the account is accessed from multiple ips. So i havent enabled secuiryt lock. So who so over hurries, can have this account exclusive to themselves.
Early bird gets to change the password. So head there soon…