The New Yorker's Exposé On TMZ Reveals Disturbing Celeb Espionage Web & Alec Baldwin's Hatred

After months of research, The New Yorker finally published its exposé on celebrity gossip outlet TMZ, and the picture it paints is disturbing to the core. In the long article, the magazine reveals that Harvey Levin's outlet is run like a global espionage facility, with a network of paid insiders all over the world -- and Alec Baldwin wasn't afraid to chip in against the company.

In the new article, entitled "The Digital Dirt," The New Yorker delves deep into how TMZ works, as the leading gossip outlet has uncovered many videos and audios from celebrities' personal phones and computers.

How? As it turns out, while there's actual reporting taking place (TMZ has three full-time reporters stationed in Los Angeles courtrooms, while the L.A. Times has only one), there's also a network of hired insiders and a lot of bribing taking place under wraps.

According to Esquire, the outlet has sources inside major transportation companies such as Delta Airlines. They're currently trying to get their hands on people from Über as well. This is the part on how they get their information about big names so quickly.

They're also no strangers to leveraging scoop. Years back, the TMZ team got their hands on a video where a teenage Justin Bieber casually used the "N-word," which they used against the singer to get smaller scoops exclusively later on.

One person who can't stand TMZ and especially its founder, Harvey Levin, is 30 Rock actor Baldwin. Back in 2007, the Emmy winner was caught in the middle of a scandal, when TMZ leaked a voice message he left his daughter, then 11 and now model Ireland Baldwin, where he called her a "rude, thoughtless little pig."

"There was a time when my greatest wish was to stab Harvey Levin with a rusty implement and watch his entrails go running down my forearm, in some Macbethian stance. I wanted him to die in my arms, while looking into my eyes, and I wanted to say to him, 'Oh, Harvey, you thoughtless little pig,'" Baldwin told The New Yorker. "He is a festering boil on the anus of American media."