Change.org is a website where people can make numerous petitions, whether it’s to keep a cancelled show on air, pay tribute to celebrities through Superbowl Halftime, or shutting down a news website.

Everyone has heard about Kobe Bryant’s untimely death, along with his daughter Gianna and 7 other passengers on a helicopter that crashed January 26, 2020. The news remains devastating to his family and fans\; the biggest issue is that his family heard through the media like everyone else. TMZ is reportedly the first outlet that reported the helicopter crash, and certain media wrote articles before his family could be notified privately. The site had also received backlash from Sheriff Alex Villanueva of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department for the timeliness of their article. While this may have been just a slap on the wrist for TMZ, someone believes that enough is enough.

Change.org user Will (OhMyGodExposeU) created a petition in favor of shutting down TMZ, reporting “TMZ’s founder Harvey Levin said that he was in communication with Kobe Bryant’s representatives before publishing the story. However, he acknowledges that the families of other victims could have found out from TMZ’s reporting or social media, which happened four hours before the official announcement. All families deserve the respect of being notified by the police, not tabloid news.” I became aware of the petition January 30, where it was only 20 signatures away from reaching its 500,000 goal. As of February 5, 601,200 have signed the petition, half a million signatures away from it’s (updated) goal of 1,000,000.

TMZ isn’t a stranger to controversy, especially when it involves celebrities. Articles about Chester Bennington and Avicii, both musicians that passed away from suicide, had their relatives taking to social media to stop people from reading the article as TMZ posted extremely personal details about their deaths. On March 13, 2019, Paris Jackson, Michael Jackson’s daughter, had criticized the outlet after they had created the false article in which Paris was allegedly being held in psychiatric care after attempting suicide.

TMZ had most notably been criticized for their constant reporting on certain celebrities, mainly Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. The outlet has also been criticized for incorrect information\; TMZ published an ‘exclusive picture’ to their website of a man purported to be John F. Kennedy on a ship with multiple women. It was later reported that the man was not John F. Kennedy and the photo was part of a Playboy photoshoot from November 1967, which was confirmed by Playboy representatives.

So, what is your opinion on TMZ? Do you believe that the site should be shut down, especially after the controversy and harmful neglect they have caused hundreds of celebrities and people?