By BRIAN STELTER


It could be called“To Catch a Rich Guy.”

The celebrity Web site TMZ and TV shows like“Extra”and“Inside Edition”are expanding their coverage of starlets and Hollywood break-ups to include billion- dollar business scandals and the economic collapse.

A camera crew for“Extra,”the syndicated entertainment show, huddled alongside the BBC and The Associated Press outside the courtroom as Bernard L. Madoff pleaded guilty on March 12. That night, the show started by calling him“the most hated man in America.”The previous evening,“Inside Edition”profiled one of Mr.Madoff’s victims who testified in court, a 60-year-old woman who lost millions and had to go to work as a maid.

The tabloid media, of course, have always peered into the excesses of the rich and famous with a mix of puritan disapproval and voyeurism. But these outlets and other news organizations are now recording troubling uses of taxpayer money at country clubs, private airports and glamorous retreats and, in so doing, explicitly tapping into a fierce populist anger at corporate America, and even pressuring the United States Congress to hold companies accountable.

TMZ, a Web site better known for unflattering paparazzi shots of Britney Spears and Rihanna, drove mainstream coverage and Congressional outrage with a blog post late last month that exclaimed,“Bailout Bank Blows Millions Partying in L.A.”The site reported that Northern Trust, a bank that received $1.6 billion in taxpayer money, had hosted hundreds of clients and employees at a golf tournament and a series of parties in Southern California. “Your tax dollars, hard at work,”the site wrote.

Northern Trust never sought the bailout funds, but agreed to take them last fall at the behest of the government. Regardless, the photos of Tiffany gift bags and the grainy video clips of Chicago and Sheryl Crow performing for the group angered readers - as well as Congressional Democrats, who demanded in a letter that Northern Trust repay what the company“frittered away on these lavish events.”The bank said it would do so“as quickly as prudently possible.”

Harvey Levin, the editor of TMZ, who called the story“the most important thing we’ve ever done,”knows his readers don’t come to the site for a dissertation on mortgagebacked securities.“It’s hard for people to wrap their heads around $800 billion in bailout money. It’s too big a thing,”he said.“It’s much easier to understand paying for a Sheryl Crow concert.”“Britney is fluff,”said Rory Waltzer, a photographer for TMZ,“but the stories about Northern Trust and Madoff and politicians in D.C. really have an impact on the country.”

Sharyl Attkisson, an investigative correspondent who contributes weekly“Follow the Money”segments for the“CBS Evening News,”said visual proof of what could be excessive spending “taps into a lot of outrage”that Americans feel about the economy.

Tracking the private jets, lavish junkets and other trappings of what the ABC correspondent Brian Ross calls“corporate royalty”are now full-time jobs for reporters at the network news divisions.

Perhaps the most memorable tale of corporate excess came in November when ABC reported that the chief executives of the three biggest American automakers had flown to Washington on private jets to plead for infusions of taxpayer money. That revelation prompted harsh rebukes by members of Congress and long rides back to Washington by the executives in hybrid cars in December.

“Some people said,‘What does that have to do with the larger, overriding issue of the economy?’I think it reflected their attitude of entitlement and failure to adapt to the times, a kind of a tin ear to what’s going on,”Mr.Ross said.