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WASHINGTON (CN) \u2014 Celebrity news giant TMZ made a splash on Capitol Hill this week, unveiling its dedicated team that will cover Congress and what the gossip outlet\u2019s founder called the convergence of pop culture and politics.<\/p>\n
But while TMZ\u2019s new Hill-watchers have been hailed online as harbingers of a new era of political accountability in Washington media, its arrival on Capitol Hill has proven more of a mixed bag for the staffers working for lawmakers now under the scrutiny of the country\u2019s foremost celebrity news organization.<\/p>\n
Just hours after they made their formal debut outside Congress Monday afternoon, TMZ\u2019s Capitol team were lauded by social media users who argued producers Charlie Cotton, Jacob Wasserman and Jakson Buhaj would hold lawmakers\u2019 feet to the fire and unmask scandal and intrigue long ignored \u2014 or perhaps buried \u2014 by more mainstream congressional journalists.<\/p>\n
\u201cTMZ is going to call out certain practices in fundraising\/lobbying\/media that Washington accepted long ago but the rest of the country will find unusual,\u201d said Nu Wexler, a former Senate communications staffer and principal at Washington-based Four Corners Public Affairs, in a post on X.<\/p>\n
Democratic strategist Ameshia Cross wrote the outlet would \u201cclear out Congress faster than midterms ever could.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGive TMZ a White House press badge for the briefing room,\u201d proclaimed Meghan McCain. \u201cI am not joking.\u201d<\/p>\n
The celebrity gossip outlet, founded in 2005 by Harvey Levin, has in recent weeks made overtures toward full-time political journalism. During Congress\u2019 Easter recess, TMZ employed its signature style as it posted shots of lawmakers vacationing, juxtaposing images of members at Disney World and at a castle in Scotland with the partial government shutdown, which has left the Department of Homeland Security unfunded<\/a> for more than a month.<\/p>\n Speaking via video call to his new Washington bureau on Monday, Levin said TMZ reporters had also shot some video recently that \u201cshow how pop culture and politics converge\u201d and raised the idea that his staff could sleep over at lawmakers\u2019 capital residences.<\/p>\n While TMZ\u2019s newly minted Washington correspondents are still getting a lay of the land, congressional staffers are weighing how to engage with the gossip column\u2019s particular brand of journalism.<\/p>\n Courthouse News spoke with several staffers working for lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle about TMZ\u2019s congressional debut. All were granted anonymity in order to speak freely.<\/p>\n Some Capitol employees expressed reservations about the gossip publication\u2019s intentions and impact, but others said they and their colleagues are excited by the prospect of a new team of congressional reporters who they thought would better hold members of Congress accountable at a time when the legislature is being rocked by ethics scandals<\/a>.<\/p>\n One Democratic Senate aide told Courthouse News staffers are actively preparing their bosses for a potential future run-in with TMZ, noting employees of lawmakers are studying the faces of the outlet\u2019s three Capitol Hill producers to more easily pick them out in the halls of Congress.<\/p>\n The aide said they hoped TMZ\u2019s work in the legislature would be a net positive, pointing out few people outside the Beltway understand the nuances of Capitol Hill politics and having a media crew that brings a less in-the-weeds approach to government could be a good thing. In preparing members to speak with TMZ, they added, congressional staff need to instruct lawmakers to talk to its reporters like laypeople rather than D.C. politicos.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to really make sure that you\u2019re speaking like to a constituent \u2014 how you would at a town hall,\u201d the Senate aide said.<\/p>\n TMZ\u2019s Washington correspondents do appear to still be getting their political sea legs. The publication reported Monday that Cotton, Wasserman and Buhaj had arrived ready for work on the first day of the week unaware the House was not in session and the Senate was not scheduled to convene for votes until the evening.<\/p>\n Having TMZ on Capitol Hill does raise some concerns, said the Senate aide, who opined it\u2019s hard to forecast the organization\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n \u201cAre they here for the right reasons?\u201d they said. \u201cAre they here to actually spread information? Or are they here for clickbait-y hits? Hopefully it\u2019s the prior one \u2014 I\u2019m not fully convinced it\u2019s the prior one.\u201d<\/p>\n But a staffer for a House Republican said while they and some other colleagues working in GOP congressional offices were at first concerned about TMZ poking around Capitol Hill, opinions shifted after the outlet\u2019s first day in Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re kind of excited,\u201d said the Republican staffer. \u201cWe\u2019re fed up with the injustice that we see all over, especially in the House.\u201d<\/p>\n The congressional aide pointed in particular to the ethics scandal that has for months plagued Representative Tony Gonzales, the Texas congressman who resigned from office Tuesday amid accusations<\/a> he repeatedly solicited explicit photographs from female staffers.<\/p>\n Arguing there had been a lack of media coverage of Gonzales\u2019 conduct in the months leading up to his resignation, the GOP staffer added TMZ is in a unique position to shed light on similar stories because, in their view, the publication is less afraid of \u201cstepping on toes.\u201d<\/p>\n A House Democratic staffer, meanwhile, told Courthouse News that though TMZ might shine a light on stories the Beltway press doesn\u2019t typically cover, the celebrity news outlet has different goals for its coverage than other reporters who cover Congress daily.<\/p>\n \u201cThese people are not interested in how someone\u2019s going to vote on a bill,\u201d the staffer said. \u201cThey\u2019re interested in the $5,000 bill they had at dinner last night.\u201d<\/p>\n Predicting TMZ would engage in \u201cgotcha\u201d questioning of lawmakers, the House staffer argued members of Congress should already be prepared for such a possibility, comparing the publication\u2019s new Washington team with campaign trackers \u2014 people employed to gather opposition research on political candidates who can occasionally be seen following lawmakers around Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n Much like the possibility of having an unflattering photo or video taken in public, the staffer added, TMZ\u2019s questioning is a variable that would be hard for a member of Congress to prepare for.<\/p>\n And the House Democratic staffer appeared somewhat less convinced than their Senate counterpart that TMZ could lower the barrier of entry for people hoping to understand the inner workings of government. They argued, so far, the organization\u2019s coverage has focused on personalities rather than policy.<\/p>\n \u201cI worry if it\u2019s just consistent negative clickbait, it could maybe lead to further apathy,\u201d said the staffer.<\/p>\n Some of the staffers who spoke to Courthouse News said their colleagues are similarly ambivalent about TMZ\u2019s descent on the Capitol. The Senate aide noted Democrats in the upper chamber are working to build out their own digital presence and that relying on outlets such as TMZ for viral moments could be a dangerous prospect.<\/p>\n Similar conversations are taking place in the House. According to Politico, the chamber\u2019s Democratic Policy and Communications Committee is coordinating with congressional offices to connect staffers with TMZ. The Democrats\u2019 political messaging panel urged staff not to conduct direct outreach with the celebrity news outlet.<\/p>\n \u201cTMZ has a unique way of capturing content, and we want to be as coordinated as possible,\u201d a DPCC aide reportedly told a group of Democratic staffers.<\/p>\n The Republican aide told Courthouse News colleagues in other GOP offices are concerned about their bosses\u2019 interaction with TMZ producers. Some Capitol employees, they told Courthouse News, have been working to find different routes for their members to travel to votes and are ensuring lawmakers are fully staffed when they leave the office.<\/p>\n In their short tenure covering Congress, TMZ has already zigzagged across the Capitol complex, on Monday chasing South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and Texas Senator Ted Cruz. In video clips posted online, Graham refused to comment to reporters about his controversial trip to Disney during the congressional recess. Cruz declined to weigh in on President Donald Trump\u2019s attacks on Pope Leo XIV.<\/p>\n TMZ producers caught Pennsylvania Representative Dan Meuser in the House on Tuesday and peppered him with similar questions about the president\u2019s papal feud.<\/p>\n The gossip outlet has arrived on Capitol Hill at a moment when members of Congress are grappling with a wide-ranging ethics debacle that has engulfed both parties. California Representative Eric Swalwell, a Democrat, joined Gonzales in resigning from the House on Tuesday<\/a> following accusations he sexually assaulted a former staffer.<\/p>\n Democratic Representative Sheila Cherfilus McCormick and Republican Representative Cory Mills, both from Florida, are under individual scrutiny for possible ethical violations and could both face expulsion from the House in the coming days.<\/p>\n Social media users, framing TMZ\u2019s presence on Capitol Hill as a sea change for political reporting, have already made bold claims about the publication\u2019s impact. Some online have suggested that TMZ played a role in Swalwell\u2019s Monday resignation announcement. It was the San Francisco Chronicle, however, that initially broke the reports of sexual assault accusations against the congressman, which led to his departure.<\/p>\n