TMZ Apologizes Over ‘Tone Deaf Laughter’ Amid Charlie Kirk Assassination, Insists It Was Just ‘Horrible Timing’

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TMZ apologized on Wednesday evening for the “tone deaf laughter” and applause that could be heard in the background of their coverage of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, insisting that the noise had nothing to do with the killing.

In a video statement addressing the incident, TMZ founder Harvey Levin said:

We were livestreaming all day during this tragedy when something happened in our office. As we were reporting the assassination of Charlie Kirk, there were some people in the back room away from our news desk here who were watching a car chase and they were laughing, they were clapping, and you could hear it out here, and we want to make a couple of things clear. One is that, I know these people, and they were not laughing, they were not reacting that way about Charlie Kirk’s assassination. They were not. They would not work here if they did.

TMZ executive producer Charles Latibeaudiere added, “That being said, we acknowledge that it was horrible timing, and for that we are sorry.”

“And I get why if you were watching the stream, you may have felt that that’s what the laughter was about. We assure you it was not about that, but it was horrible timing,” Latibeaudiere continued. “You can go back and look on the stream. I actually walked off camera to go back and find out what the hell was going on because it was inappropriate for the laughter at that time. But no one was laughing about the Charlie Kirk tragedy.”

Levin concluded, “Nevertheless, we apologize for the way it sounded.”

A car chase in Los Angeles was being aired by ABC7 on Wednesday during TMZ’s livestream. However, during coverage of the car chase, the network announced that Kirk had passed away.