TMZ's managing editor is Harvey Levin, a lawyer-turned-journalist who was previously a legal expert for the Los Angeles television station KCBS-TV.

[7][8] Three months before TMZ's official launch, America Online (AOL) had indicated its intention to create a Hollywood and entertainment-focused news site in collaboration with Telepictures Productions.

Upon the site's official launch, AOL confirmed that it would predominantly showcase Hollywood gossip, encompassing interviews, photos, and video content featuring celebrities.

Mike Shields of MediaWeek.com wrote, "the site also boasts of an expansive collection of archived star photos and videos", allowing fans to "trace changing hairlines and waistlines of their favorites performers over the years".

[11] Levin has acknowledged that TMZ has passed on multiple notable coverages because he felt that, while the stories are true, he questioned how the sources obtained their information.

"[16] On December 24, 2010, the gossip blog "Oh No They Didn't" reported that TMZ began blocking traffic from the UK, displaying the message: "Due to laws within your region, you are unable to view this website."

Asked for further comment, TMZ responded that the blocking was due to "legal restrictions" related to English defamation law.

The live webcast takes place at the TMZ offices in Los Angeles,[19] and is broadcast on TMZ.com Monday through Fridays from approximately 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (the length varies depending on the featured segments).

[27] Levin and Jim Paratore served as executive producers to the show, and the on-air cast originally included Teresa Strasser, John Fugelsang, Ben Mankiewicz and Michael Hundgen.

[27] David Bianculli of The New York Daily News strongly criticized the television show, its topics, and what he sees as its reporters' tactics and lack of professionalism.

[37] Many of the videos on the site show, in the footage, that their paparazzi chase people (mainly celebrities)—a practice that has been called dangerous[37] and "creepy".

[38] TMZ has also faced internal criticism due to Harvey Levin's emerging support for Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2016 United States presidential election.

[47] Movie City News, which strongly criticized TMZ for purchasing stolen items, remarked that the then-new website "wasn't getting off to a good start".

[46] According to IESB, TMZ had obtained some of the stolen property and was planning on running a story about the topic on their TV show, until the lawyers of the film's production company, Paramount Pictures, intervened.

Shortly after IESB broke the story, TMZ broadcast details about the Indiana Jones production budget on their show on October 3, 2007.

"[36] Jennifer Metz and David Muir of ABC News acknowledged that TMZ has long been criticized for their "aggressive tactics, antagonizing stars with video cameras" and noted that those "encounters, capturing at times violent celebrity confrontations with photographers, receive hundreds of hits online, and critics ask if entertainment reporters are crossing the line."

[37] Ken Sunshine, publicist for Ben Affleck and Leonardo DiCaprio, stated that his clients disliked the website because it has a tendency to be negative towards celebrities when reporting on them.

[49] A student newspaper criticized TMZ for having a personality cult of figures such as Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton—celebrities who are known more as targets for paparazzi than for the work they do.

[52][53] At 11:24 a.m. Pacific Time on January 26, 2020, TMZ reported on the death of basketball player Kobe Bryant,[54] being the first news outlet to do so.

On October 16, 2024, after the death of British singer and former One Direction member Liam Payne, TMZ garnered controversy after posting pictures of his identifying tattoos of his dead body as well as the scene of the hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

[58] In what The Smoking Gun called "a colossal screw-up", in 2009 TMZ published an "exclusive" picture on their website of a man purported to be John F. Kennedy on a ship with several naked women that could have "changed history" had it come out during his presidential campaign.

[63] On October 26, 2022, TMZ incorrectly reported that rock n' roll pioneer and country music legend Jerry Lee Lewis had died; they issued a correction a few hours later.

[66] On August 22, 2024, TMZ incorrectly reported that Beyoncé would make a surprise appearance on the final night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention.