One can only wonder why Penn decided to interview El Chapo in the first place, but it’s highly unlikely the reason would make a difference to the journalists criticizing him for it. Considering the abysmal record Mexico has for freedom of the press, it is understandable why they would be resentful of Penn’s article. His disturbing fascination for the drug lord doesn’t help matters either.
“To many observers, Penn’s sometimes playful prose revealed a troubling admiration for the man who “is one of the main players in the country’s bloody drug wars, which have claimed at least 100,000 lives over the last decade,’ according to Quartz.
‘As you dive deeper into the meandering mess, it becomes clear that Penn holds some sort of Hollywood-inspired reverence for El Chapo,’ Gawker’s Melissa Cronin writes in a post that catalogues the story’s worst lines.
For others, Penn’s controversial account was reminiscent of the magazine’s 9,000-word debacle about a gang rape at the University of Virginia that never occurred.
Jeet Heer, a senior editor for the New Republic, alluded to the fabricated account on Twitter, writing: ‘Rolling Stone sets standard journalist ethics aside to get story that will attract enormous attention. What could go wrong?’
Others, such as Vice correspondent Danny Gold, called out journalists for their hypocrisy. He argued that Penn did what any other journalist desperate for the most sought-after scoop in the world would have done, according to CNN.
‘Never a fan of Penn’s journalism,’ Gold wrote, ‘but me and every other journo would have compromised a whole lot more to get an interview with El Chapo. Anyone else who says otherwise is lying.'”
Source: Washington Post
Actor Sean Penn says he has no regrets about his clandestine visit to interview Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman for Rolling Stone.
In a brief email exchange with The Associated Press, Penn was asked about images published in Mexican news media Monday that appeared to show officials watching him and actress Kate Del Castillo ahead of their October visit with Guzman.
“I’ve got nothin’ to hide,” he wrote.
Guzman was captured last Friday, more than three months after Penn’s Oct. 2 meeting with him in central Mexico and six months after escaping from prison.
Penn did not respond directly to questions on whether it was appropriate for him to submit his story to Guzman for approval in advance of publication, or whether he took adequate information and operational security measures to protect his source.
Source: CBSNews
Sean….you are such a loser!
Sean Penn look out. Cartel is coming after you. SNITCH.
Too many actors want to be politicians , because all politicians are actors !!! And lousy ones at that !!It is all publicity !! They are not content unless they are in front of a camera !It’s all make believe to them ! It never occurs to them ,they are affecting lives !ACTORS ,POLITICIANS ……..ALL THE SAME !
Penn is out in the open defending dictatorship
You may not have anything to hide, but I sure wish you would. I’m sick of you too!!!
El chapo may be cutting into our drug cartels.
His life is not worth a plug nickel now because he and that Mexican actress took part in leading to the capture of EL CHAPO
Sean, you better hide little man, he has a long reach and you don’t believe in guns, right? Good luck dumb$#%&!@* how did you think this would end?