Sean Penn is nuts and should probably be locked up for a variety of reasons, but now it seems as though Mexican authorities think he actually may have done something illegal in interviewing infamous drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera. Rolling Stone published the interview just a few days ago — one day after El Chapo was recaptured by the authorities, in fact — and the whole thing is pretty crazy.
Basically, Penn went to Mexico and talked to El Chapo for 7 hours straight last October. The whole thing was, as Sean described, “a clandestine horror show for the single most technologically illiterate man left standing.” You see, Sean is 55 and super rich, but he doesn’t know how to use a computer and doesn’t really “get” technology (because apparently it’s still worthy of hipster cred to portray yourself as a Luddite).
Anyhoo, after about 2,000 words of pontification and navel gazing, we’re finally onto the interview, and what’s revealed within it has given authorities pause and they’re now investigating Penn, who’s basically wringing his hands of the whole thing and claiming that it’s all cool because this interview was SO last year, so it kinda doesn’t count as illegal?
Also, journalists around the world are panning Penn (and Rolling Stone in particular) for being so non-journalistic in letting El Chapo preview and change the piece before publication. Oh, and they wonder how this idea — of having Sean Penn interview a notorious drug lord… just for the sake of it? — even came about.
Every single sentence here is crazy in one way or another. https://t.co/hJdnrWZhIA pic.twitter.com/mjouhCX5e0
— Nicholas Thompson (@nxthompson) January 10, 2016
THOUGH ABSENT ANY HUMAN CALCULUS THAT MAY PROVIDE US A SENSE OF ANCHORED COMMONALITY pic.twitter.com/mkLbvZZFcs
— Katherine Miller (@katherinemiller) January 10, 2016
It’s all very strange, but I guess worth a read if you’re bored like me on a Sunday night and have nothing else to do. Might as well, eh?