Sean Penn interviewed El Chapo (Credit: Rolling Stone, screenshot)
Actor Sean Penn interviewed Mexican drug kingpin El Chapo, aka Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, for Rolling Stone magazine.
And El Chapo got pre-publication approval of the article on him. In a disclosure statement atop Penn’s article, published online Jan. 9 in the days following El Chapo’s arrest, Rolling Stone said:
“Disclosure: Some names have had to be changed, locations not named, and an understanding was brokered with the subject that this piece would be submitted for the subject’s approval before publication. The subject did not ask for any changes.”
Penn wrote that he was not paid for the article and that Mexican actress Kate del Castillo helped set up the interview. Penn wrote that he pitched the idea of interviewing El Chapo after El Chapo’s escape last year and Rolling Stone OKed it. The interview was conducted while El Chapo was on the run and published shortly after his capture.
iMediaEthics has asked Rolling Stone why it granted the pre-publication approval and what the explicit terms of the arrangement with El Chapo were.
The New York Times noted Penn’s interview with El Chapo is “believed to be the first [El Chapo] has given in decades.”
On Twitter, the scandal surrounding Rolling Stone‘s 2014 story “A Rape on Campus,” which has been retracted and is the subject of more than one lawsuit against the magazine, was brought up.
Below, see tweets about the Rolling Stone El Chapo article.
Rolling Stone sets standard journalist ethics aside to get story that will attract enormous attention. What could go wrong?
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) January 10, 2016
Disclosure: We gave a drug lord editorial control of Rolling Stone which is, incredibly, not the worst thing we've done lately.
— Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) January 10, 2016
Do you think El Chapo’s PR person called Sean Penn and asked if they could review the quotes before publication
— Caro (@socarolinesays) January 10, 2016
I think many journalism profs know we'll be talking about next week. @rollingstone #journalismethics @SeanPenn @UVA #ElChapoGuzman @AEJMC
— Joel Campbell (@joelcampbell) January 10, 2016
Quick look at Rolling Stone editor right about now. pic.twitter.com/ayOE83zkSq
— Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) January 10, 2016
So I guess Rolling Stone has hijacked my journalism ethics class next week. Again.
— Jason Martin (@jmart181) January 10, 2016
FOR FREE! https://t.co/KqIPu3jPXd
— Caro (@socarolinesays) January 10, 2016
For those saying any media organization would do what Rolling Stone did: You are totally wrong.
— Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) January 10, 2016
Sean Penn doesn't get paid. Rolling Stone gets what it paid for. https://t.co/H6xwsJNiY6
— Joshua Foust (@joshuafoust) January 10, 2016
It's fun and smart to give a drug lord pre-publication approval of a story written by an actor lmao we live in hell
— Leah Finnegan (@leahfinnegan) January 10, 2016
So will Sean Penn play Sean Penn in the movie he'll make about El Chapo trying to make a movie about himself? https://t.co/aqhymDmD6W
— Andrew Wallenstein (@awallenstein) January 10, 2016
Yes. +1. https://t.co/oG10P8pJZC
— On the Media (@onthemedia) January 10, 2016
Which is to say, how many news orgs, if they had the chance, would've done the same thing? How many would've rejected those terms?
— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 10, 2016
