So Kanye West was arrested this morning at LAX for "felony vandalism", a charge the result of his scuffle with two "journalists" from online gossip rag TMZ. Mr. West and his assistant were en route to boarding a flight to Honolulu when they were confronted by a number of paparazzi. Angered, the two forcefully removed the camera of a photographer and smashed it. After a verbal confrontation, West and his assistant were arrested.
Kanye West will be held to account for his actions, right or wrong. Continuing to remain unaccountable however is TMZ, its entire staff and its parent company Time Warner. It's entirely fair to assume that in the evidence of paparazzi, this situation would not have occurred. By virtue of that, it could be argued that this supposed "news" website, which by definition should exist solely to report on the news, is in fact making the news. Meanwhile TMZ's sister companies like CNN and People Magazine reap the benefit of the scuffle, posting a number of news articles for which they reap significant ad-benefits.
My question is this: how can the Governor of California, or the mayor of Los Angeles for that matter, expect the market to regulate itself with regards to paparazzi crossing the line when their very crossing of the line has an immediate and positive impact on the mainstream media's bottom line? Isn't it time to pass laws to indicate that paparazzi stalking, as it would be called anywhere outside of California, is every bit as criminal as the smashing of a camera?
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