Sean Penn covering Iranian election
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy
Actor Sean Penn has taken on the role of reporter, covering the elections in Iran. Penn is in the country as a correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle. The once and future Spicoli has some experience in the Middle East since he went to Iraq in 2003 just before the U.S. led invasion. The article seems to make a big deal of him being at a prayer meeting where attendees shouted "Death to America", but shouldn't a decent reporter for any news organization be in situations just like this? Seems that detail being included has more to do with Penn's outspoken political views than anything else. 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-15-2005 @ 6:42PM
Ash said...
I am really kinda sick of people critisizing movie stars and the like for voicing their political opinions (not that this is the case here). These celbrities are just as qualified as any other idiot off the street to have an opinion.
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6-16-2005 @ 1:49AM
Sean McCarthy said...
You're wrong on this one, Ash.
Sean Penn is an exceptionally well-qualified idiot.
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6-16-2005 @ 8:20AM
mick du russel said...
A lot of times, entertainment figures thrust themselves into the political arena and suddenly, they are experts on foreign policy and human rights. I'm sorry, but this makes me sick. Being an actor is a job that pays very if you are lucky. Even though they earn much more than lawyers, judges, congressmen and senators, this does not make them political geniuses.
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6-16-2005 @ 8:42PM
Ash said...
Don't get me wrong, actors make a whole lotta cash and say very few intelligent things. However, they do very little actual work. The thing is, your average dude who is programming code all day long for some office park monument company gets home after a long day of a computer screen. Where as Tim Robbins, and Ben Affleck just sit around waiting for the next shot all day long. The process is so tedious. The actor has a lot more time on his hands to learn about issues and sides. Not that they are more or less likely to know anything, I am just saying they are equally as likely. Ben Affleck spoke many times during the election and he held his own everytime on the issues against reps for the republican party. Tim Robbins is also very knowledgable. Sean Penn is a different story, as with Brad Pitt with Diane Sawyer of whoever. They seem to simply spout off the liberal simple thought of the day. No war for oil, End poverty, all that crap. Mind you, I think these same things, but, I talk about the way to get there, not, just preaching the end result. It's like the crazy people who talk of the apocalypse on the street. They just shout "the end is near". But they have no plan, no dates, no signs. I guess what I am saying is, Sean Penn is a crazy person. I mean, just look at that whole Madonna thing.
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7-23-2005 @ 10:30AM
DTB said...
Decent reporter? You mean like the ones who completely overlooked the neocon story (re: US policy toward Iraq) for about a year and a half? Credentials... bah!
That's not to say I think there are NO decent reporters out there willing to cover the Iran story... of course there are plenty of them working for the Christian Science Monitor, the wires, the major papers. But how many Americans actually READ foreign news on a regular basis? That's the point, isn't it? We're so celebrity-obsessed that we'll read anything a movie star writes... even if it's in the (dreaded!) foreign news section.
If Sean Penn wants to go over to Iran, more power to him. And sure, read what he writes with a critical eye... but aren't we supposed to be reading everyone's dispatches with a critical eye?
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