Yesterday TMZ made big news by publishing a photo that supposedly depicted John F. Kennedy lounging on a yacht while four naked girls frolicked around, much like you see in your dreams, assuming your dreams are black and white and grainy. The story spread like wild fire and I was oh-so-close to posting something about the image, but it just didn’t feel right. Something was off. Now comes word that my hunch was correct, but the same sites that ran the story yesterday will almost assuredly post no correction today.
Hours after the popular celebrity news Web site published a photo that it said “appears to show John F. Kennedy on a boat filled with naked women,” one of its corporate siblings, The Smoking Gun, revealed that TMZ had been duped.
The photo that TMZ called exclusive was, it turned out, featured in a Playboy magazine photo spread in 1967, four years after Mr. Kennedy was assassinated. The Smoking Gun called it a “colossal screw-up” by TMZ.
TMZ is owned by Warner Brothers, and The Smoking Gun is owned by Turner. Both are units of Time Warner.
TMZ acknowledged in a subsequent article on Monday afternoon that the photo was “a fake.”
