I was in an airport in New York City when I first heard that Sean Penn wrote a 10,000 word piece on El Chapo for Rolling Stone, which may have led to El Chapo’s recapture. The place was significant to me because I had spent the last two weeks in the city that never sleeps, where some of the country’s best journalists live and write and report the news. My first thought was, So Sean Penn writes now? Huh.

In reading the article, I had a hard time getting past the line where he says he never learned how to use a laptop and wasn’t sure they were made anymore. The article was cheesy. It was poorly written. It did nothing for me. But it got me thinking about journalism as a whole–that’s when I started to pay attention.

When sensational things like this happen–where a famous person and an infamous person meet in secret for an article in Rolling Stone, for example–I find that it’s more important to pay attention to the aftermath than to the actual event. In the aftermath of this article being released, there were comments from all sides on every single news outlet that I watched. Many began by covering the recapture of El Chapo and the plan to extradite him to the United States so that he can’t escape from prison again (you really need to step up your prison game when you’re holding drug lords, Mexico). Inevitably, though, they always eventually started talking about Sean Penn and playing clips from an interview he did with Charlie Rose on “60 Minutes.” That is when things get interesting.

According to the interview, Sean Penn is sad about the state of journalism. He says, “’Journalists’ [the air quotes are his] who want to say I’m not a journalist, well, I want to see the license that says that they’re a journalist.” (The emphasis is also his.) He doesn’t seem to grasp where he’s sitting and who he’s talking to, and that’s what’s making people–especially other journalists–angry.

First of all, to those who say that Sean Penn has never written anything–he has. His IMDB page shows that he has six writing credits, including two screenplays. He has also used his fame and his political and social beliefs to have editorials published in The Washington Post and The New York Times, along with other publications. He has interviewed controversial world leaders such as Raul Castro and Hugo Chavez. He has never seemed to find his footing, however, amongst the journalistic community.

Second, consider who Sean Penn is talking to on “60 Minutes.” Charlie Rose holds a law degree from Duke University. He has won awards for his journalism, including an Emmy Award for his interview with Charles Manson and a Peabody Award for his interview with Jimmy Carter while he was president. Sean Penn was insulting journalism in front of a successful and revered journalist. He was asking to see Charlie Rose’s “journalism license” as he sat right in front of him.

Charlie Rose, for his part, remained calm and collected about the whole thing, never showing offense to the ridiculous things that Sean Penn said about journalism. The interview, as a whole, did not show Sean Penn in a great light. He seemed selfish, dismissive, and defensive. He said that no one understood him. He tried to make it into everyone else’s fault that his Rolling Stone article “failed.”

This, to me, is what makes it clear that Sean Penn isn’t a journalist, even though he wants to be. Journalism (in most cases) is about reporting facts in a way that makes a story enticing to read or watch. It isn’t about making a point–it’s about revealing something new that people at large are interested in. No, you don’t need a license, but you need generally need a college degree and an understanding of what the end goal is. An interview with El Chapo could have been a very interesting piece of journalism. It had the potential to become something big and important, like interviews with criminals that reveal some of their motivations and tendencies. What Sean Penn did was write an extremely long self-indulgent essay for a magazine that was as much about him as it was about his subject. In addition, he let El Chapo review the piece before it went to press. Sure, he wrote something for a magazine. I guess that makes him a journalist. But what he wrote wasn’t journalism. It was a bizarre memoir. That’s the difference.

Amanda Gernentz Hanson

Amanda Gernentz Hanson is a Minnesota native living in Austin, Texas. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Hope College and a Master’s degree in Technical Communication from Minnesota State University, where her final project discussed intellectual property issues in freelancing and blogging. Amanda is an instructional designer full time, a freelance writer part time, and a nerd always. Contact Amanda at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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In a particularly strange piece of news, Academy Award winning actor Sean Penn secretly met with fugitive Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and wrote an article about it for Rolling Stone. El Chapo has now been arrested, but the article went up on Rolling Stone’s website last night. The entire situation is incredibly odd, but the fun part is that some of the individual facts are even odder. Check out the top five weirdest things about Sean Penn’s interview with El Chapo:

5. El Chapo Doesn’t do Drugs

Despite the fact that El Chapo claims to supply “more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world,” he doesn’t do drugs personally. In fact, he hasn’t done any drugs in 20 years.

4. In Fact, He Does Hugs not Drugs

When Sean Penn first met “El Chapo,” the drug kingpin hugged him. Penn wrote that when they met, “he pulls me into a ‘compadre’ hug, looks me in the eyes and speaks a lengthy greeting in Spanish too fast for my ears.”

3. Yet, Sean Penn Still Farted in Front of El Chapo

Sean Penn bizarrely admitted to farting in front of El Chapo, and determined that the drug lord was very chivalrous for pretending not to notice, writing: “At this moment, I expel a minor traveler’s flatulence (sorry), and with it, I experience the same chivalry he’d offered when putting Kate to bed, as he pretends not to notice.”

2. Sean Penn Doesn’t Know How to use a Laptop

I’m going to leave this quote, from Sean Penn, without any context: “At 55 years old, I’ve never learned to use a laptop. Do they still make laptops? No fucking idea!”

Are we supposed to believe that Sean Penn hasn’t even seen a laptop recently?

1. But Somehow, They Still Use BBM

The strangest part of this, somehow, is the fact that part of the interview as well as part of the setup was conducted using BBM, or Blackberry Messenger. Given that Blackberries have become borderline obsolete, it’s a charmingly strange addition to the story. I, for one, am impressed that Sean Penn couldn’t figure out how to use a laptop, but could figure out a Blackberry.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Five Weirdest Parts of Sean Penn’s Interview with El Chapo appeared first on Law Street.

Hey y’all!

I have always been partial to the ‘Don’t Mess With Texas’ slogan; it gives a good heads up to anyone who wants to break the law or cause a ruckus in this great state! Osiel Cárdenas Jr., however, apparently did not get that memo.

Osiel Jr., son of former drug lord Osiel Cardenas Guillen, was reportedly arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents after they discovered nearly 500 rounds of ammunition and tactical weapons gear hidden in different parts of his sweet Cadillac Escalade SUV. Junior was attempting to cross a bridge going over the Rio Grande that connects South Texas to Mexico but got caught. He admitted to the items being his and to knowing that it was illegal to smuggle them into Mexico. What a winner–his dad must be so proud.

The inspection of the Cadillac Escalade SUV uncovered 290 rounds of 9mm ammunition, 161 rounds of .223 caliber ammunition, 29 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, two .223 rifle magazines, and other tactical weapons gear hidden in various parts of the car that included the glove box, center console, and a factory compartment behind the stereo buttons. A pat down of Osiel Jr. also brought to light 14.2 grams of marijuana hanging out in his underwear. That’s a strange place to keep your pot but hey, to each his own.

Osiel Cárdenas Jr. is scheduled for a hearing at a detention center tomorrow. The realities of smuggling across the border are real. If that is going into Mexico I can only wonder what is being brought into the states that we know nothing about. Border Patrol is a vital part of keeping this country safe and a lot of that comes through Texas.

Allison Dawson

Allison Dawson was born in Germany and raised in Mississippi and Texas. A graduate of Texas Tech University and Arizona State University, she’s currently dedicating her life to studying for the LSAT. Twitter junkie. Conservative. Get in touch with Allison at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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