Dan Abrams: Gossip Cop

Dan Abrams, NBC’s chief legal analyst, is taking the law into his own hands—gossip law, that is.

Abrams teamed up with journalist Michael Lewittes to launch Gossip Cop, which they described on the site’s What Is Gossip Cop? page as “the first site of its kind to police the gossip industry.”

Gossip Cop includes a meter with every story, representing how strongly Abrams and Lewittes believe in the rumor.

In an interview with People, Abrams said he and Lewittes launched Gossip Cop because “There’s a real need for accountability. More and more people try to be outrageous rather than accurate.”

Abrams told People on the subject of most common targets of false rumors, “Jennifer Aniston is a constant target. And Madonna. It tends to be women more often than men.” When asked whether he had been a victim, he added, “There was definitely an erroneous story about my dating life. It was all made-up. But look, I have pretty thick skin.”

From the What Is Gossip Cop? page:

When a story appears on the Web, in print or on air, Gossip Cop will be on the scene, separating fact from fiction. Every day we’ll be posting new stories, photos and video—and busting bad dish.

We’re going to have a lot of fun keeping under surveillance the usual suspects (yes, we’re watching you, Star and Perez Hilton). Since we actually care more about being right than being outrageous, we hope to be the most accurate blog in the business. But we, too, are fallible, and we’ll be the first to acknowledge when we blow it—or to applaud others for getting a great scoop. And if you know that a story is incorrect, send us a tip—we’ll be quick to investigate.

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