Gossip Cop Launches, Aims to ‘Bust Bad Dish’

Today, new gossip-policing site Gossip Cop launched, with the mission of  “Busting Bad Dish” — evaluating the gossip stories that hit the news cycle every day and separating truth from tabloid fiction. Want to know if Miley Cyrus really did nude scenes? Whether Madonna’s alarming-looking arms have actually been photoshopped? If Angelina Jolie is planning on running for President? (No, probably, and no.) They post, Gossip Cop decides — and maps it on the Truth Meter, which assigns every story a score from ‘Real’ to ‘Rumor.’

Gossip Cop is co-founded by Mediaite publisher Dan Abrams and Michael Lewittes, a former news director for Us Weekly,  editor at The New York Post, and columnist for the New York Daily News. Lewittes is the EIC (or the “Top Cop“) and will direct and oversee all editorial content, assisted by deputy editor Daniel Jacobson.

Says Lewittes in a release today:

We live in a time when many feel being first or outrageous is more important than being factual, and I want to change that. Not only are people filing false reports on their blogs every day, but so much of what is out there is just mean-spirited for no reason at all.

What was the impetus for Gossip Cop? Dan Abrams told us earlier:

“My high school pal Michael came to me back in January with the basic concept, which I loved. For the past five months we have been developing GossipCop.com which is, in the end, a media watchdog site. I think many will agree it’s time for an objective source to separate fact from fiction in the world of entertainment and gossip and Michael and Gossip Cop will do just that.”

Though Gossip Cop and Mediaite have Abrams in common, the two sites are editorially separate, though Lewittes will be contributing occasional columns to Mediaite. The two sites also share the same designer in Rex Sorgatz, who sheds additional light on Gossip Cop in a column today (he describes it as “Perez Hilton meets Columbia Journalism Review”). You decide – either way, we’re just glad that someone will finally be paying attention to Britney.

Related:
What Is Gossip Cop? [Gossip Cop]
Gossip Cop: Patrolling Celebrity[Mediaite]

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