Britney Spears documentary reveals what's wrong with the entertainment media

Vanessa Diaz recently op-ed was recently published in USA Today. Diaz's article touches on the Britney Spears documentary and discusses how, "the film’s villains, the paparazzi are unique in being among the most precarious groups in the Hollywood media system." 

"Framing Britney Spears," the latest documentary from "The New York Times Presents" series, has created many perceived villains in the Spears fiasco: her father, ex-boyfriends and husbands, her mother, media figures like Diane Sawyer and Matt Lauer, and, of course, the paparazzi.There is a jarring moment in the documentary where, after a paparazzo tells Spears “we’re concerned about you,” the next scene shows him trying to ask her questions. Spears’ cousin asks him not to and then Spears angrily emerges from the car with her umbrella, strikes his car, and says, “Go f___ yourself.” The interviewer in the film asks the paparazzo if he thinks the paparazzi affected Spears, and he argues that they didn’t. He says, “There were times when she said leave me alone for the day. But it wasn’t like leave me alone forever.” What the scene leaves unexplained is what the dynamic between Spears and the paparazzi was actually like on a daily basis, outside of this evocative moment. The interview with the paparazzo is conducted and cut in a way to make clear that the interviewer places blame on the photographers for Spears’ mental and emotional state.