Hi, I addressed this. If a magazine sent him, a magazine sent the photographer.
So your complaint is simply that he didn’t recue enough people to suit you?
How many people does any private citizen have a duty to rescue? If he rescued ONE person, he was rescuing one more than he had any oblgation to. It’s not like it’s his job or anything.
He was originally pitted for being such a doofus that he failed to check the bilge plug or the reliability of the motor, for the marvelous picture of him bailing out with a stadium cup, and for having an entourage.
He is in an area where rescue officials determined that experienced sailors with local experience would do more harm than good.
If he gained access via his press pass he has no business making himself part of the story.
He was handing out cash to victims, for Pete’s sake. If that’s not grandstanding I don’t know what is.
There is absolutely no evidence that he has saved anyone who would not otherwise have been saved. There really needs to be a compelling reason to personally overrule the decisions of the ones vested with the responsibility of command.
When you imagine Sean Penn sailing off to rescue survivors, just picture Captain Jack Sparrow’s entrance in Pirates of the Caribbean …with the boat sinking out from underneath him.
In other words, you can’t think of a single thing he did that merits a personal attack. As for giving out cash to victims, how on earth is that a BAD thing? He did it front of cameras? What choice did he have?
Incidentally, we currently have a whole thread dedicated to people patting themselves on the backs for how how much money they’ve given. Do they all deserve Pit threads?
Oh,quit the black and white/binary bullshit.
“I look at me, I’m a great guy for helping!”
“Couldn’t you have helped more people if you hadn’t brought a photographer?”
“…I did more than you!”
Whatever good he did do is less than he could have done if he hadn’t brought along a photographer.
Do you dispute this?
-Joe, expecting evasion
So how many people has Sean rescued today? Surely he didn’t go through all of this just for an afternoon, I assume he’s still out there rescuing people.
Anybody have any Sean updates, or was 15 minutes all he could spare?
The photog was probably sent by the magazine, and since he had no obligation to help ANYBODY, then it’s a complete non-issue. Even if he had gone to do nothing but hand out cash, he would still be doing more than he was obliged to do and he still deserves credit, not ridicule.
Is there anything anybody can do to make you shut the fuck up about this “Penn brought a photographer” bullshit? Either prove to me that it was his idea to take a photographer or accept that magazines send photojournalists to take pictures to go with their articles.
I heard his boat sank again and he had to be rescued.
Wait a minute. Did Sean Penn decide he wanted to help people…or was he assigned to do so by a magazine?
Ahh…so now it wasn’t his idea.
So, is he now there to help or is it part of the story? Whose money is he handing out, his or the magazine’s?
Why did the goalposts suddenly move?
-Joe
What a stupid fucking post. If he helped anybody ever, then what’s the fucking problem? Even if he had been there again today, you would have only attacked him for it.
Jesus FUCK, why can’t a guy try to do a good thing (even it is a little ineptly executed) without getting stoned for it?
I’m sure some dittoheads feel that way about their boy. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t still need to be pilloried.
-Joe
The photographer was in the boat, along with other people. It’s not so much the fact that a photographer was along as that he was taking the place of a potential rescuee, as were the others in the boat. If Penn is there as a journalist he really has no business inserting himself into the story. If he decided to abandon his role as a journalist, what did he need the photographer for?
I know people who are search and rescue first responders, who are EMT’s, who are ER nurses. it is generally understood that the civilians need to let the professionals handle the situation. Nothing has been cited to show that Penn did anything that would not have been handled by the pros. In the absence of that, the presumption is that he was in the way.
Why couldn’t he have been there to do both?
His. How is that a contradiction?
They didn’t.
I’d be willing to guess that he is now being ridiculed for passing out cash in an area that is devestated. What good is cash now? The stores are destroyed and are looted. It’s not like they can take that cash (his or not), go to Central Market and buy themselves a mufaletta.
Sean Penn: “My God, I’ve got to go help those people! But first, lemme call Jann Wenner. I see this as a cover!”
I have no idea. It’s been posted at least twice in this thread that he is down there to write a story. I’m sure you’ll make up your own dumb-assed interpretation, but personally I don’t care which it is. One may be self-serving, but it still does good and I think it’s valuable to get stories out there.
I haven’t moved any goalposts, since I wasn’t posting in here before 10:30, and I don’t give a shit if you think I have. People are saying he was sent by a magazine - one poster said it was reported on MSNBC that he is there for Rolling Stone - and there you have it. If he was, he was, and that would mean the photographer was not his idea.
I’ve seen no indication that anyone thought he was in the way. Even if he was (which I do not acknowledge), it still does not make him a bad person for trying to help.