9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
'I'm a real man': Why was Justin Bieber fighting with paparazzi? Here's what happened outside Soho House
Justin Bieber
is back in the headlines after a tense encounter with paparazzi outside Soho House in Malibu last Thursday, as reported by
The New York Times
. In a video that quickly went viral across social media, Bieber is seen engaging in what appears to be an increasingly heated exchange with a photographer, sparking renewed public concern over his mental and emotional state.
Clad in a blue hoodie and holding a flashlight close to his face, Bieber is heard saying,
"It's not clocking to you that I'm standing on business, is it?"
—a phrase often used to signal assertiveness and unwillingness to back down. The moment, widely circulated online, comes amid a broader conversation in the video where the pop star accuses the photographers of attempting to provoke him and misrepresent his actions.
"You're provoking me — you're going to take this video out of context like you always do,"
Bieber says, before the tone escalates and he begins using expletives, questioning the motives of the paparazzi:
"Why are you trying to provoke me? I'm a real dad, a real husband, a real man."
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Observers speculated that the flashlight may have been used to obscure photographers' shots—a low-tech tactic in an era where anti-camera tech has become more sophisticated.
Since the confrontation, Bieber posted a cryptic message on Instagram:
"People keep telling me to heal. Don't you think if I could have fixed myself I would have already?"
The post, which some fans interpreted as a reaction to the incident, was accompanied by a middle-finger emoji. His representatives declined to comment, according to
The New York Times
.
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Encounters like this are not new for Bieber. In April, before attending Coachella, he was seen in a TMZ video lashing out at photographers, saying,
"You don't care about people, only money."
His history of clashes with the paparazzi dates back to his teen idol days.
Experts interviewed by
The New York Times
suggest that such confrontations may stem from a more aggressive
paparazzi culture
that emerged in the early 2000s. Ray Murray, a media ethics professor at Oklahoma State University, noted a shift from discreet photo-snapping to open provocation:
"They'll run up and throw water in your face just to get a reaction."
Vanessa Díaz, a Loyola Marymount University professor and author of
Manufacturing Celebrity
, explained that freelance paparazzi are often scapegoated for the content they're pressured to capture:
"Paparazzi aren't creating the economy of paparazzi work... It's the media corporations demanding it."
The incident has reignited debates about celebrity privacy, mental health, and the ethics of tabloid culture—topics Bieber has confronted throughout his career.
