"Sean Penn did the job of a journalist… I would have done it." @GeraldoRivera
https://t.co/6z0wft42fy
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) January 11, 2016
Fox News personality Geraldo Rivera is defending Sean Penn for the actor and director’s controversial interview of notorious drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
“He was being a journalist when he pursued this worldwide exclusive that we’re all talking about. Everybody was interested in the product,” Rivera said Monday on “Fox and Friends.”
{mosads}”Sean Penn did, I think, the job of a journalist. Like it or not, I really believe this was a huge scoop,” Rivera continued. “I would have done it.”
Penn sparked criticism with his interview, published by Rolling Stone online Saturday, which was conducted after the drug lord escaped a Mexican prison. Guzmán was captured Friday after escaping prison in July 2015.
Questions have also arisen surrounding Penn’s interview with one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, including one from journalists scrutinizing Guzmán’s editorial approval of the story.
Rivera sent a series of tweets on Sunday praising Penn for the interview and published an op-ed on Monday hailing Penn for his “public service” getting an interview that “took major balls.”