This is interesting for a couple of reasons.
1. It shows that "legit" news/media outlets are taking TMZ's word for the truth, or they are at least reporting it as the truth.
This from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution "Breaking News Report"
Report: Tebow using hyperbaric chamber
1:43 p.m. Thursday, August 12, 2010
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The celebrity website TMZ.com is reporting that Denver Broncos rookie and Florida Gator hero Tim Tebow has had a hyperbaric oxygen chamber delivered to his hotel room at the Broncos' training camp and TMZ says he's been using the device for more than two years -- since his days as a Gator.
TMZ quotes Ric Rooney, owner of Pikes Peak Hyperbaric, as saying Tebow purchased the $20,000 device in 2008.
The chambers, which are used by a number of professional athletes, including former Braves pitcher John Smoltz, "greatly accelerate the recovery process," Rooney told TMZ.
Tebow has been getting "banged up" at practice and felt the chamber could help him heal quicker, Rooney told the website, which reported that Tebow's routine is to sit in the chamber for 60 to 90 minutes after every practice.
Former Georgia Bulldog Hines Ward of the Pittsburgh Steelers is also reported to use a hyperbaric chamber.
http://www.ajc.com/sports/atlanta-falco ... id=thbz_hm
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This is from Bright House Sports Network, Tampa Bay and Orlando (interesting because it looks like these guys called and got an interview from the "Rooney" guy from the hyperbaric company that gave the photo/story to TMZ and that did the photoshopping and got quotes from him to use in their article, including a dig at TMZ that they "erroneously" reported some of the "facts"!) This article also credits the photo to PPH - the company that added their photoshopped logo to the machine in the photograph.
Broncos QB Tim Tebow owns personal hyperbaric chamber
By David Baumann, BHSN
Last Updated: Thursday, August 12, 2010
DENVER --
Denver Broncos rookie quarterback Tim Tebow is now one of the dozens of NFL players who own hyperbaric chambers. TMZ.com erroneously reported Tebow purchased a hyperbaric chamber in 2008, which raised questions about how a college student could afford a $20,000 purchase. Pikes Peak Hyperbaric co-owner Ric Rooney said Tebow purchased a hyperbaric chamber around the time of the 2010 NFL combine. Tebow bought a chamber from Bill Schindler, the owner of Hyperbaric Therapy Center in Cummings, GA. Schindler has sold over 160 hyperbaric chambers to NFL athletes, according to Rooney (Schindler did not return a call from BHSN). Tebow shipped his personal chamber to Denver in recent weeks, but experienced installation problems. That's when Pikes Peak Hyperbaric lended a helping hand (as seen in the photo).
In an interview with BHSN, Rooney said the hyperbaric chamber is essentially a pressurized oxygen chamber that provides quicker recovery time, "It greatly accelerates the body's ability to heal," said Rooney. "For guys like Tim Tebow, it's a way of protecting multi-million dollar investments, which are their bodies."
Rooney said hyperbaric chambers became popular after Terrell Owens used one in 2005. Owens, then a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, suffered a severe ankle injury near the end of the 2005 regular season. He vowed to play in the Super Bowl if the Eagles were to make it that far in the postseason, and that they did. Owens not only played in the Super Bowl, but finished with a tremendous game. Owens attributed his time spent in the hyperbaric chamber to his quick recovery.
Athletes like Tim Tebow will typically spend an hour to an hour and a half per hyperbaric chamber use, said Rooney. "The body's ability to absorb oxygen is 400% greater inside the chamber than outside it. There are neurological benefits to it as well... and there are no side effects."
Rooney says his son Jesse had great things to say about Tebow, after installing the chamber. "Jesse said Tim was the nicest guy. He (Tebow) talked for 45 minutes about life in general."
http://www.baynews9.com/article/sports/ ... ic-chamber
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2. Here is another instance where TMZ used a photograph without realizing it was not what they thought it was.
The JFK Photo That Could Have Changed History
12/27/2009 11:07 PM PST by TMZ Staff
TMZ has obtained a never-before published photograph which appears to show John F. Kennedy on a boat filled with naked women -- it's a photo that could have altered world events.
We believe the photo was taken in the mid-1950s. It shows two naked women jumping off the boat and two more naked women sunning on the top deck. Just below the top deck -- a man appearing to be John F. Kennedy is lying on a deck, sunning himself.

http://ll-media.tmz.com/2009/12/28/sedlik_video_2-1.jpg
TMZ had multiple experts examine the photo -- all say there is no evidence the picture was Photoshopped. The original print -- which is creased -- was scanned and examined for evidence of inconsistent lighting, photo composition and other forms of manipulation.
The experts all concluded the photo appears authentic.
Professor Jeff Sedlik, a forensic photo expert, says the print appears to be authentic. Sedlik says the photo is printed on paper consistent with what was used in the 1950s. The emulsion on the surface of the print has numerous cracks -- the result of aging and handling.
There are numerous articles and books on President John F. Kennedy which mention a 2-week, Mediterranean boating trip that JFK -- then a Senator -- took in August, 1956, with his brother Ted Kennedy and Senator George Smathers. The trio reportedly entertained a number of women on the yacht. Jackie Kennedy was pregnant at the time and was rushed to the hospital while JFK was on the boat. Doctors performed an emergency C-section, but the infant was stillborn.
Forensic analyst Sedlik superimposed an image of Kennedy taken at the Democratic National Convention in August 1956, just days before Kennedy went on the Mediterranean cruise. Sedlik says the features from the two pics almost precisely sync up. TMZ has also had two Kennedy biographers examine the photo -- they also believe JFK is in the picture.

http://ll-media.tmz.com/2009/12/28/1227 ... z_01-1.jpg
The photo was eventually given to a man who owned a car dealership on the East coast. The man kept it in a drawer for years, and would brag to friends he had an image of JFK on a boat with naked women. The man died 10 years ago and one of his sons inherited the photo.
Had the photo surfaced when John F. Kennedy ran for President in 1960, it could have torpedoed his run, and changed world history.
http://www.tmz.com/2009/12/28/president ... -election/
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Man in Photo is Not JFK
12/28/2009 9:57 AM PST by TMZ Staff
TMZ received an email from someone who said the photo we posted showing a man appearing to be John F. Kennedy on a yacht with naked women was actually a photo from a 1967 Playboy photo shoot.
We have contacted Playboy and a rep says the photo did indeed run in one of its 1967 issues. We are trying to get a copy and will update as soon as we get the info.
UPDATE: 2:34 PM ET We've now confirmed the photo was part of a Playboy spread in 1967. The image published in Playboy was published in color.
UPDATE: 1:11 PM ET A rep from Playboy tells TMZ the photo ran as part of story titled, "Playboy's Charter Yacht Party: How to Have a Ball on the Briny with an Able-Bodies Complement of Ship's Belles." She says the photo was taken on one of the islands that make up the Grenadines (Petit Rameau).
http://www.tmz.com/2009/12/28/john-f-ke ... ude-women/
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This article is from Decemember, 2009, about the JFK photo that TMZ had researched and had determined was real - only to find out it was a photo taken 4 years after JFK died.
TMZ Admits It Was Duped by a Photo
By BRIAN STELTER
Published: December 28, 2009
It was, as TMZ said dramatically in a headline on Monday morning, "The J.F.K. Photo That Could Have Changed History." Could have — if it had been a real photo.
Hours after the popular celebrity news Web site published a photo that it said "appears to show John F. Kennedy on a boat filled with naked women," one of its corporate siblings, The Smoking Gun, revealed that TMZ had been duped.
The photo that TMZ called exclusive was, it turned out, featured in a Playboy magazine photo spread in 1967, four years after Mr. Kennedy was assassinated. The Smoking Gun called it a "colossal screw-up" by TMZ.
TMZ is owned by Warner Brothers, and The Smoking Gun is owned by Turner. Both are units of Time Warner.
TMZ acknowledged in a subsequent article on Monday afternoon that the photo was "a fake."
"We're not happy about it, but this is part of journalism," Harvey Levin, TMZ's executive producer, said in an interview.
Like other media outlets, TMZ makes mundane mistakes from time to time, but the Kennedy photo-that-wasn't was its biggest error in some time, prompting immediate criticism from its readers. The embarrassing episode comes as TMZ is preparing to expand with a sports Web site.
Circumstantial evidence indicated to TMZ that the photo had been taken in the mid-1950s, leading the site to suggest that it could have torpedoed Kennedy's presidential run.
Mr. Levin said the site, better known for starlet photos and legal scoops, conducted "due diligence" last week, consulting with two forensics experts and two Kennedy biographers who all believed that the picture showed the former president. "We did a whole lot of work to feel comfortable with it," he said.
The site regularly pays for celebrity images, but Mr. Levin would not comment on whether TMZ had paid for the photo.
A version of this article appeared in print on December 29, 2009, on page B2 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/busin ... 9hoax.html
Interesting that in the link to this article, the NYTImes labels it "hoax"