Dear TMZ Staff,
It’s no secret that Taylor Swift has been in a lawsuit against a former DJ for sexually assaulting her during a meet and greet for quite some time now. The DJ, David Mueller, was accused of putting his hand up Taylor’s skirt and groping her as they were taking a picture together. I was scrolling through various social media platforms and saw many angry posts from people regarding your article, so I went and checked it out myself.
The title you have chosen for this article ("The ‘Sexual Assault’ Photo I Wanted to Keep Secret”) was the first red flag. If it was meant to be kept a secret, why did you feel the need to publish it and share it with the world? And what makes you think the words “sexual assault” need quotations marks around it? A sexual assault is a sexual assault. You have no right to mock a victim of an alleged assault. You even mention in this article that “Swift asked a judge to keep the photo under wraps”, yet you still feel the need to leak this photo and make it public so everyone and their neighbors can view it and ultimately humiliate Taylor. You’re making money by humiliating this young woman and that is so far from O.K. Yes, she is a famous celebrity, but that doesn’t mean she deserves to be treated with any less respect or empathy than any other female on the planet.
The damage has already been done. Now that you’ve leaked the photo, it has been spread all across the internet and has probably reached thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of people. You’re promoting victim-shaming journalism and if that’s not disgusting, I don’t know what is. If you look at the picture you have provided for the entire world, you can obviously tell that Taylor is uncomfortable just by the half-smile she’s giving the camera.
She even mentioned in her deposition that no matter how far she scooted over, his hand was still on her bottom and she was stunned and uncomfortable. You should’ve never published a photo that was court-sealed for a reason, only to question why Taylor and her team didn’t want the picture to be public in the first place. As Gossip Cop said, “Swift’s privacy has been grossly invaded. This was not an image for public consumption. It was not a public document”.
I write this letter to ask you to remove the picture of Taylor Swift being sexually assaulted. Though she’s a celebrity, Taylor deserves respect, especially during this time, and you have given her the complete opposite of respect- humiliation and embarrassment. There are plenty of things that you could’ve written about instead, but you chose to mortify this young woman and invade her privacy. Taylor Swift did not and does not deserve this level of embarrassment.
Sincerely,
A woman with decency
*There is an ongoing petition targeting the editor of TMZ (Harvey Robert Levin) to ask him to remove the photo of Taylor. You can click http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/889/176/860/ to sign this petition.