TMZ is facing intense backlash for its reporting on the death of Liam Payne, after the showbiz tabloid chose to publish pictures of Payne’s body on the deck of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel. Payne died after falling from his balcony on third floor of the hotel, the circumstances that led to the fall are not yet known.
TMZ deleted the photos from the article shortly after commentary began to circulate online. Other news outlets are also facing backlash for publishing the 911 call hotel staff made in the moments before Payne fell. Pictures of his hotel room are circulating online, as are fake videos of a man falling from a building. Google Trends is reporting major breakout search for terms like ‘Liam Payne TMZ body reddit’, 'Liam Payne 911 call' and ‘Liam Payne hotel room photos’.
‘TMZ posting part of a photo of Liam Payne’s dead body in an article announcing his death is beyond deplorable,’ one X user tweeted to 83,000 likes. ‘I can’t tell if I’m losing my mind lately or if society has always been this overtly morally decrepit.’
‘No matter how you felt about Liam Payne, posting pictures of his dead body is fucking mental I hope TMZ burns to the ground,’ another wrote to 15,000 likes.
TMZ has not commented on the backlash. Questions have also been raised about the speed in which Payne’s death was reported, and whether or not his family were given the opportunity to be told the news before it made headlines.
Outside of the decisions of certain showbiz outlets, the online response to Payne’s death – from jokes and negative comments to the breakout searches for pictures of his body – show a stark, dehumanising decline in the way we talk about the death of public figures online. It’s fair that many will have complicated feelings about Payne’s death given recent allegations of abuse by his ex-girlfriend, Maya Henry, but the knee-jerk reaction to post content online that for likes or reactions says a lot about the current state of pop culture. There is a clear lack of dignity in the way this news has been reported and received, and that’s particularly harmful for those closest to him who will now be going through the most complex and highly publicized experience of grief one can imagine.