Former TMZ employees allege that the newsroom is a hotbed for racism, misogyny and verbal abuse

BuzzFeed News

In response to former TMZ employee Bernadette Zilio filing a lawsuit two weeks ago accusing TMZ founder Harvey Levin and his leadership team of creating a toxic and sexist work environment, one current and 23 former employees have come forward to back up her allegations in interviews with Buzzfeed News' Krystie Lee Yandoli. The current employee told Yandoli -- who extensively reported on The Ellen DeGeneres Show's toxic workplace this summer -- of “unchecked abuse of power,” starting with the men in charge, who are led by Levin. The former employees said there are hardly any women in senior roles at TMZ and that the company hires people of color “because they know that they need to, as opposed to appreciating and valuing them.” In addition to toxic workplace allegations, TMZ and The Ellen DeGeneres Show both share the same producer: Warner Bros.' Telepictures. TMZ and Ellen were also both created with the help of Jim Paratore, a veteran producer who died in 2012. According to Yandoli, former employees allege that Levin and his top producers would scream and curse at them on a regular basis. "One former employee said they felt physically threatened by executives at TMZ, and that they called them a 'f*cking retard,' 'f*cking piece of sh*t,' and 'f*cking dummy," reports Yandoli. Six of the former employees say they filed complaints with Warner Bros.' human resources department, while others say they avoided complaining out of fear of retaliation. Former employees say the toxic work environment included sexual harassment with one executive making sexually explicit comments and a staffer showing porn at his desk. “It’s just a toxic environment of extreme measures of blaming, scapegoating, bullying, harassing people to get what they want, and being biased against women,” says a former Warner Bros. employee. One former employee points out that TMZ is located in Marina del Rey, about 25 miles from the Warner Bros. studio in Burbank, which makes it difficult to report misconduct. “HR is just not very good at policing and regulating some of these shows,” a former employee said. “And the common thread is Warner Bros.” A TMZ spokesperson responded to the allegations by calling them a “blatant attempt to use negative publicity and inaccurate claims to force” a monetary settlement.