2008 Woodie Awards
Papparazzi should be held accountable
Matthew Lewis
Issue date: 5/3/08 Section: Opinion
As a journalist, I obviously understand the importance of laws protecting journalists in addition to the bill of rights. However, the new laws restricting the right of the "Paparazzi" in California were brought on by themselves..
For decades these shutter happy stalkers have scavenged the streets of Hollywood calling themselves photojournalists as they break every journalistic ethical standard we have ever come up with.
The subjects of their photos have been driven to emotional breakdowns and both the photographers and the celebrities have been injured or worse.
It's becoming more common everyday to see a car boxed in by 20 or more paparazzi and it usually ends up with a photographer under the wheels of an $80,000 Mercedes while the driver is held responsible.
As a basic rule, true journalists and photojournalists are supposed to record events without interfering or if possible go unnoticed. Instead paparazzi are infamous for creating incidents and breeding dangerous situations.
The California government's attempts to strengthen the boundaries on paparazzi are only trying to bring order and safety back to the streets of Hollywood. Dennis Zine, a Los Angeles city councilman, was quoted as saying, "Just because you have a camera does not make you the press."
I completely agree. The material that they collect does nothing but feed societies almost primal need for humiliating gossip and distraction. It's unfortunate however that even our more respectable news agencies have been sucked into the celebrity hype, breaking from legitimate news to inform us that Paris Hilton got into her car.
In spite of these facts, celebrity photographer, E. L. Woody claims that the paparazzi are legitimate photojournalists and that they are even more credible than organizations like CNN, ABC, FOX and others.
However ,Woody did acknowledge that paparazzi do have to follow a set of values. When asked what those values were he paused for several moments before giving up and saying, "Well,we're going to get our pictures and that's the way it is."
This is a clear example of how these so called celebrity photographers don't even begin to take journalism seriously but will hide behind it when called out on their lack of ethics and disturbance of the peace.
The bottom line is if a celebrity guns someone down in the street I want to know, if they donate $3 million to save an orphanage I want to know.
I don't want to know about every time Lindsay Lohan flashes people as she gets out of a car or every time Paris Hilton gets into a car.
Every time the celebrity photographers justify the stalking and disrupting the peace as journalism they threaten the rights of the true journalists in California. Journalists are supposed to objectively report the news, not become the news.
For decades these shutter happy stalkers have scavenged the streets of Hollywood calling themselves photojournalists as they break every journalistic ethical standard we have ever come up with.
The subjects of their photos have been driven to emotional breakdowns and both the photographers and the celebrities have been injured or worse.
It's becoming more common everyday to see a car boxed in by 20 or more paparazzi and it usually ends up with a photographer under the wheels of an $80,000 Mercedes while the driver is held responsible.
As a basic rule, true journalists and photojournalists are supposed to record events without interfering or if possible go unnoticed. Instead paparazzi are infamous for creating incidents and breeding dangerous situations.
The California government's attempts to strengthen the boundaries on paparazzi are only trying to bring order and safety back to the streets of Hollywood. Dennis Zine, a Los Angeles city councilman, was quoted as saying, "Just because you have a camera does not make you the press."
I completely agree. The material that they collect does nothing but feed societies almost primal need for humiliating gossip and distraction. It's unfortunate however that even our more respectable news agencies have been sucked into the celebrity hype, breaking from legitimate news to inform us that Paris Hilton got into her car.
In spite of these facts, celebrity photographer, E. L. Woody claims that the paparazzi are legitimate photojournalists and that they are even more credible than organizations like CNN, ABC, FOX and others.
However ,Woody did acknowledge that paparazzi do have to follow a set of values. When asked what those values were he paused for several moments before giving up and saying, "Well,we're going to get our pictures and that's the way it is."
This is a clear example of how these so called celebrity photographers don't even begin to take journalism seriously but will hide behind it when called out on their lack of ethics and disturbance of the peace.
The bottom line is if a celebrity guns someone down in the street I want to know, if they donate $3 million to save an orphanage I want to know.
I don't want to know about every time Lindsay Lohan flashes people as she gets out of a car or every time Paris Hilton gets into a car.
Every time the celebrity photographers justify the stalking and disrupting the peace as journalism they threaten the rights of the true journalists in California. Journalists are supposed to objectively report the news, not become the news.
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