Celebrity gossip tabloid TMZ is being slammed for publishing images said to show parts of Liam Payne’s body after the former One Direction singer died in a fall from his hotel room in Buenos Aires.
“TMZ obtained a photo showing Liam’s body on a wooden deck at the hotel with tables and chairs nearby,” the site’s article read, according to screenshots posted on social media. “We’re not showing the whole body, but you can clearly see his tattoos — a clock on his left forearm, and a scorpion on his abdomen.”
After the backlash, the tabloid quickly removed the photos.
People were outraged.
“TMZ is trying to get clicks and ad money off of a young man’s dead body just minutes after the news of his death,” BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh \posted on X. “Imagine being a member of Liam Payne’s family and seeing this.”
In an interview with U.K. radio network LBC, music writer Matt Charlton called TMZ “shameful” and “one of the most irresponsible examples of so-called journalism I’ve ever seen.”
