YouSaid · the spoken record

Harvey Levin

lines on the record
59
first
2026-06-22
most recent
2026-06-22
sittings or episodes
1
sources
podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “Struck me about that, Carrie, is that a lot of times when a politician gets angry, the reporter either backs off or changes the subject. And Charlie didn't back off But he wasn't disrespectful, and it was revelatory for me. That is.”

    2026-06-22 · On with Kara Swisher · TMZ’s Harvey Levin Says Politics Is Pop Culture · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  2. “Well, I mean, I think part of it is that everybody is in one lane. And it's so policy oriented that you don't kind of open things up to understand what's behind it. And sometimes when you understand the people and where they're coming from, it gives you an insight into why they're doing what they're doing. You know, most of the time, we're not having these contentious conversations with people, but occasionally we do. And we pissed head crews off something fierce once, where we were asking him about the fun, the slush fund that Donald Trump wanted to create. And he did not want to answer. And Charlie, I think very respectfully, would not let it go. And Cruz got very angry and would really...”

    2026-06-22 · On with Kara Swisher · TMZ’s Harvey Levin Says Politics Is Pop Culture · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  3. “Yeah, there was no business plan. There are two people in my organization that I felt were just perfect for this. And I thought I'm going to do something with them or I'm going to move them to Washington, D.C. And we made that decision very quickly. We put them up in an Airbnb for the first month and they just hit the ground running. And it started with both of them having books of pictures of the various members of Congress. And now they know everybody. And it's been two months.”

    2026-06-22 · On with Kara Swisher · TMZ’s Harvey Levin Says Politics Is Pop Culture · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  4. “It was none partisan, and you know things have become so tribal in media where you only go after Republicans if you're a certain channel, you go after Democrats if you're another. And we were nonpartisan. And we just put it out there and we really felt the outrage and we telegraphed it. And people responded. People were angry. And they wanted to see something like this. And again, it just felt like the right time to launch TMZ.”

    2026-06-22 · On with Kara Swisher · TMZ’s Harvey Levin Says Politics Is Pop Culture · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  5. “It was a first day Of recess, we got this picture, and I'm just thinking, oh my God. So we just said, look, this is the moment, and we put it together in two weeks.”

    2026-06-22 · On with Kara Swisher · TMZ’s Harvey Levin Says Politics Is Pop Culture · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  6. “Five years ago, Warner Brothers sold it to Fox. And honestly, they've been great. And they haven't imposed any pressure on us. We did this with the two weeks that Congress was out.”

    2026-06-22 · On with Kara Swisher · TMZ’s Harvey Levin Says Politics Is Pop Culture · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  7. “We are standing there talking to her and knowing that they were going to take a two-week Easter recess. And I was so outraged. We just said, look, this is unacceptable. And if anybody out there gets photographs of any member of Congress, Democrat or Republican, it doesn't matter, on vacation, send us the pictures and we are going to put them up and juxtapose that against people like this woman who are exactly right.”

    2026-06-22 · On with Kara Swisher · TMZ’s Harvey Levin Says Politics Is Pop Culture · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  8. “Warner Bros. as well, but AOL in particular, they were worried because of regulations, that they were afraid that we might piss off a congressman who they needed, you know, for some regulatory act or whatever. And the more they talked about it, the more scared they got and they killed it. I mean, this is classic corporate culture. And so they killed it twice when we were over there at Warner Brothers. And, you know, this came about Kara really spontaneously that when Congress could not pass the budget to fund Homeland Security, Charles and I interviewed a woman who worked at TSA and she was about to lose her apartment. Her car was going to get repossessed. Her mental health had gone down the tubes.”

    2026-06-22 · On with Kara Swisher · TMZ’s Harvey Levin Says Politics Is Pop Culture · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  9. “Warner Brothers killed it twice. We were owned by Warner Brothers, by telepictures. And in 2000, I think it was 2008, I said I want to do TMZ DC. And at the time, we were with AOL. It was a partnership between telepictures and AOL. And I went back and forth to Washington, hired a staff. We were going to have our launch dinner and open our office the next morning. And I got a call just before leaving for dinner saying I got some bad news for you. We're killing it. And they killed it. What I later found out was that AOL in particular, although I think”

    2026-06-22 · On with Kara Swisher · TMZ’s Harvey Levin Says Politics Is Pop Culture · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT