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 — The Blast staff 

 Harvey Levin’s right-hand man Mike Walters quit TMZ after the two very nearly came to blows in front of the newsroom shortly before Christmas, TheWrap has learned from multiple sources close to the situation. 
 
 Sources said it started because Levin didn’t want to re-negotiate the contract of Liz Walters, who is Mike’s sister and ran the company’s court reporting beat. Levin referred to her as “shady” to the entire staff and Walters immediately confronted him, needing to be physically restrained by staffers. 
 
 TheWrap learned that Levin repeatedly shouted “shady” during the altercation, and Mike Walters packed up his stuff and left the office without returning. 
 
 Also Read: Donald Trump Reveals Unfulfilled Goal to TMZ's Harvey Levin in Fox News Special 
 
 Liz has also left the company. 
 
 TMZ did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment. 
 
 Mike Walters had been with TMZ for 13 years and wore many hats, including news director and executive producer of “TMZ Live.” Walters, who once said it sounded like a fart when his son was born, was a fan favorite among viewers of “TMZ on TV.” 
 
 Insiders say Walters was very important to Levin, as most of the people there strictly take orders but Walters has deep sources in the law enforcement community surrounding Los Angeles. His father is a deputy sheriff in Orange County and Walters often broke news related to arrests and criminal activity. 
 
 Tony Maglio contributed to this report.
– TMZ lost its No. 2 man earlier this year in dramatic fashion. The Wrap reported in January that TMZ founder Harvey Levin and his protege and news director Mike Walters "very nearly came to blows in front of the newsroom shortly before Christmas" over Levin's apparent refusal to renew the contract of Walters' sister, Liz, also a TMZ staffer. The pair left the company shortly after, and though Walters could've taken a job at Us Weekly, he instead had a plan to "crush" TMZ, The Dirty reported in March. It's now clear what that plan involved. Walters has just launched The Blast, a rival site that brings together "an all-star team of journalists from places like People, the Daily Mail, and MSNBC," Walters tells the New York Times. Aiming for a blend of hard and soft celebrity news, the team behind The Blast, which is backed by the France-based Banijay Group, "will be first, we will be accurate, and we will always bring you the real story," reads a post on the site. In what the Times sees as a possible dig at Levin, Walters—who again has his sister working at his side—adds, "You are only as good as the people around you. It's not about you. It's about your team." Walters does see value in the decade and a half he spent working under Levin, though. "I learned two things from Harvey," he says. "One is urgency and the other is work ethic." Now, "I'm going to do what I've done for the last 15 years, which is break news with credibility and backbone and authority." (Here's how TMZ gets its scoops.)