Malibu Media Maelstrom Ensues as Paparazzi
Dominate News Coverage
• Mainstream Press Legitimizes Edited
Video without Investigating Photographers’ Allegations
During a weekend when record-breaking
temperatures dominated the news, two Malibu beach brawls made
headlines around the world and have many locals scratching
their heads and wondering whether the hot weather may have been
affecting the media.
Residents have been voicing concern
that an erroneous picture of an event has now been repeated so
many times by so many media that it has assumed a life of its
own. They say this, while in no way condoning what may be
construed to be unseemly behavior by people who live here.
Basically the facts for anyone who has had
no electronic contact with the world in the last six days is
that rowdy donnybrooks occurred on Point Dume beaches on
Saturday and Sunday.
The melees have been dubbed by celebrity
websites as clashes between “the
paparazzi” and “the surfers.”
That these sites might favor the paparazzi could have
something to do with their dependence on them for content.
The incidents, the first of which
ostensibly erupted as actor Matthew McConaughey was
surfing off Little Dume, are alleged to have resulted in
one broken nose and camera gear damages estimated at over
$10,000.
Videos of the skirmishes have been replayed
endlessly on these websites and have either been given or
sold to nearly every major media outlet, most of
which appear to use them without questioning their
authenticity.
The Little Dume video appears edited to
slur locals who sought to evict the paparazzi from the dry sand
at the beach. There has been little play of some photographers
doing the filming reportedly urging their comrades to
“keep going” as “this is good
stuff.”
Some locals are asking whether the
paparazzi, knowing that their aggressive behavior has been in
the news lately, decided to take the makings of a tense
situation and spin them to their advantage.
Several of the people at the beach, a mix
of Point Dume residents and visitors, many of whom would hardly
fit the notion of the stereotypical surfer, currently
decline attribution because there is concern
about litigation against individuals and the
property owners association that has the private beach easement
where the first brawl took place.
The Riviera II Property Owners
Association, one of the groups that oversee the beach key
access to Little Dume Beach, held a closed meeting Monday night
to address some of the legal issues that might have been
raised.
A number of the citizens who were involved
in the clashes are in the process of filing police reports
of their own. At least one of them, a lifelong Malibuite, has
brought local attorney Michael Schwimer on board to begin
to address what they say is an imbalance in the
outside media’s coverage of the event.
Schwimer said, “The real story is
still coming out. The rest of the media have taken the
paparazzi’s spoon-fed story and run with it. They have
done no investigations of what happened.”
He acknowledges that some of the group
called the surfers, who should more accurately be
described as a group of beachgoers, “may have been
pushed so hard that they pushed back.” But he is adamant
that “the video is so heavily edited to
mischaracterize the situation and portray the Malibu
residents as aggressors, when in fact it was the
opposite.”
Schwimer said it is damning that
mainstream media would take “obviously edited”
video “at face value,” even “picking up
the same inaccurate labels of paparazzi and surfers”
as used by the celebrity websites. The terms
repeatedly appear in print headlines and broadcast
references.
The Malibu Surfside News has received
undisclosed information that a knife was drawn by a
paparazzo. A report that one of the residents at the scene
had a wound that required five stitches has been confirmed. And
tripods were recorded being used as weapons.
The team of investigators from the Lost
Hills Sheriff’s Station has been trying to obtain copies
of the original videotapes but has been unsuccessful.
Schwimer says what was happening at both
beach locations is “a public safety issue.” He says
the state paparazzi legislation that is on the books should be
enforced, adding that an emphasis on “disturbing the
peace and public nuisance” is imperative.
The attorney said he is beginning to
question whether there was “an element of
purposefulness” in the Little Dume fracas, as
“facts suggest an effort to capitalize” on the
situation by filming it.
Schwimer said there are currently several
Web postings about “another round” to take place at
the beach on Saturday, June 28. “There appears to be a
real intention to promote violence.”
He added that some of the photographers
from the incident have reportedly obtained the telephone
numbers of some of the beachgoers and have begun to make
“threatening phone calls.”
Mainstream media scorn the paparazzi and
differentiate them from professional journalists. Their
coverage of the Malibu beach brouhahas demonstrate that the
line between them is blurring.
As for McConaughey, he continued to surf
unaware of what was happening the first day until he learned
about it later. He also hit the waves the next day, albeit some
distance from the second clash at Paradise Cove.
His publicist Alan Nierob said the
incidents will not dissuade the actor from surfing, and
“he will continue to enjoy the beautiful Malibu
coastline.”
