Last November, TMZ broke the news that the Heisman Trophy candidate Jameis Winston was being investigated by the Tallahassee Police Department over an allegation that he had sexually abused a fellow student at Florida State University.
In April, it posted an audio recording of the Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling making racist remarks.
And on Monday, it published a video showing Ray Rice knocking out his fiancée in an elevator in Atlantic City.
This remarkable string of scoops has highlighted the unexpected power and reach of a gossip website that’s not even 10 years old. But maybe most surprising of all has been the nature of the stories.
TMZ, which built a following by exposing the foibles of Hollywood celebrities — often by paying for tips — is now taking aim at a whole new category of prominent people and powerful institutions, including the country’s richest, most popular sports league. And its reporting is having an impact.
TMZ’s revelations prompted Sterling’s lifetime ban from the N.B.A. and forced him to sell the team. Its video of Rice has not only cost him his N.F.L. contract — and perhaps career — but also raised questions about why the league hadn’t obtained the footage itself.
The Rice video has also prompted a national conversation about domestic abuse — playing out on social media under the hashtags #WhyILeft and #WhyIStayed — that even the White House has felt compelled to weigh in on.
(“Stopping domestic violence is something that’s bigger than football,” President Obama said Monday through his press secretary, Josh Earnest.)
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