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Justin Bieber Didn’t ‘Diss’ Fans, Or Argentina Flag, Watch What Really Happened

By Page Mackinley
Published on: 07:25 PST, May 6, 2016

Justin Bieber has a long history of interacting with his fans in impromptu situations. Despite this, a recent incident in which a fan threw a flag at the singer’s face has been misreported as a “diss” to fans, and even Argentina’s flag by some gossip sites.

On Wednesday, May 4, the Biebs was leaving a New York City hotel garage when he evidently spotted a group of Beliebers waiting outside the exit. Eyewitnesses later tweeted that the 22-year-old singer specifically rolled down his passenger window in his SUV to talk to the fans.

However, as the excitable group of girls approached Bieber’s SUV, one fan threw an Argentina flag at the singer’s face.

Even without the heartthrob’s audio being picked up, fan-obtained footage shows Justin then calmly asking a girl, “Why did you throw that?”

It goes without saying that although something soft was thrown at Bieber in this case, it could just as easily have been something more dangerous, such as a rock — or worse. With that in mind, his response of throwing the flag back out of his window (without force) and rolling up the window seems understandable. It is also unlikely Bieber realized the object thrown was the Argentina flag, as he reacted within seconds and didn’t appear to look closely at it.

Watch the moment on the video below.

Despite it being apparent on the video that Bieber rolled down his window to speak to fans, the Hollywood Life gossip site rolled out a headline on Thursday ignoring that.

“Justin Bieber Rudely Disses Fans Asking For A Picture — Watch,” the site snarked, before going on to claim that “fans wanted a selfie with their favorite singer, but the Biebs shut them down with a harsh diss.”

The blog, which topped Gossip Cop’s Worst Outlet for Celebrity Journalism tables in 2014, then accused the pop star of acting “cold” towards the fans.

The site goes on to muse that Biebs may not have been in the mood to take selfies and writes, “His reply to some excited Beliebers wanting a snap was still really rude!”

“Instead of politely turning down his eager Beliebers, Justin pulled a bit of attitude on his fans,” the outlet added, before calling the singer “really mean” and claiming he tossed “either a shirt or possibly his trash” at his fans.

But, as the video shows, Bieber had every intention of talking to the waiting fans, which is why he rolled down his car window. It’s reasonable to think that if a fan hadn’t thrown a flag at him he would have taken selfies with the girls.

Hollywood Life’s disingenuous take is no different from countless bogus Bieber stories the website has churned out over the years. It’s part of the sensationalist misreporting and often fabricated gossip stories that are the norm for the media’s coverage of the superstar. Some news and gossip outlets are even claiming Bieber’s response to the flag being thrown in his face is a sign of a supposed dislike for Argentina. It’s a staggering assumption, even given Bieber’s ongoing legal case there.

The most recent example of media misreporting was the overkill that followed Bieber Instagramming a photo of himself in bed with his puppy last week, which he captioned, “And on the 7th day.” It was a harmless post about rest, as the singer was later forced to explain after a slew of tabloids ran headlines declaring he was “comparing himself to God.”

In the flammable world Justin Bieber inhabits, he’s not allowed to use biblical or cultural references, be tongue-in-cheek, get legally tipsy, protest over being lied about in the press, be extended compassion after the worst kind of invasion of privacy, have mental health issues, or have a normal reaction after something is thrown at him.

For Bieber’s part, he seemed to answer the mistaken accusations about dissing fans and the Argentina flag in a tweet he posted on Friday. The media really loves to twist things. Glad we have social media so they can’t twist me. I love people. Plain and simple. I love people,” he wrote.

Check out a selection of videos showing Bieber interacting with fans in non-fraught contexts below.

[Images via Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images]

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