Penn described his story as experiential journalism, designed to highlight the failures of the war on drugs.
I absolutely understand justice and the rule of law.
And so I do what I call experiential journalism.
Credit: CBS
I go and I spend time in the company of another human being, which everyone is.
And I make an observation and attempt to parallel that.
Im really sad about the state of journalism in our country.
Journalists who want to say that Im not a journalist.
Well, I want to see the license that says that theyre a journalist.
I was not present to report on the things people would like to see reported on, Penn said.
I was not present at murders.
I was not present to see narcotics.
I was not present to that.
What I was present for I wrote.
As a result, Penn said he considers his article a failure.
Youre really saying, what I really regret is not anything that did.
I regret that people misunderstood what I did, Rose said.
Thats what Im saying, yeah, Penn said.
Watch the interview over at CBS.com.
