Morgan Freeman’s supposed statement on the “real reasons” behind
yesterday’s Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre has been getting a lot
of posts and reposts on Facebook, but the very self-righteous, preachy
and downright wrong in points missive is almost definitely a hoax and
not the words of the actor. (Update: Screenshot below shows a possible
source for the quote.)
The Morgan Freeman Newtown statement is, first and foremost, not
traceable to any particular time, outlet or media source to whom the
gravelly-voiced frequent narrator would have given the series of
sanctimonious “thoughts” on the shooting. No interviewer claims credit
for speaking to Morgan Freeman after the tragedy, and no single entry on
the web for the lecture on the effects of media, publicity and
journalism in general cites any reputable source in collecting the
supposed remarks from the stately star.
But the missive penned almost definitely by someone other than Freeman
who “borrowed” the actor’s voice to lend credibility to their own
thoughts is striking a chord nonetheless — likely because it gives
people not only a quick cause on which to blame the horrific events
(that durn news industry!), but also a bit of assumed smugness in
posting the comments back to friends on Facebook and Twitter after days
of coverage.
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The Morgan Freeman Connecticut shootings hoax begins:
“You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here’s why … It’s
because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how
we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like
celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do
you know the name of a single victim of Columbine?”
The purported Morgan Freeman statement continues:
“Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their
basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and
going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because
he’ll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody …
CNN’s article says that if the body count ‘holds up,’ this will rank as
the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics
somehow make one shooting worse than another.”
Firstly, let’s pretend that CNN definitely used the term “holds up” in
comparing the Newtown massacre to the Virginia Tech casualty toll. It’s
not inherently morbid to examine a tragedy’s scope in relation to other
tragedies and it doesn’t magically becoming “ranking” the two to compare
the number of victims killed.
No one is saying one shooting is “worse than another,” but the sheer
number of gun massacres in the US prompts many Americans to wonder about
the relative impact. This is human nature, as old as the first printing
presses, and not in and of itself exploitative.
Fake Morgan Freeman continues:
“Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details
of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News
has plastered the killer’s face on all their reports for hours. Any
articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the
killer’s identity? None that I’ve seen yet. Because they don’t sell.”
Which is utterly, provably false and anyone who has wept and watched the coverage of the Newtown tragedy saw this first hand.
Was there a big media frenzy yesterday when the killer was first
identified as Ryan Lanza and then Adam Lanza? Of course. Because this
event is newsworthy. It should be noted there was equally a frenzy when
victims’ identities were confirmed, and while Adam Lanza has been less
of a popular term today, victims names have been intermittently trending
on both Facebook and Twitter.
Don’t let anyone tell you bearing witness or reporting is a sin, crime
or glorification of the many senseless and horrible deaths at Sandy Hook
Elementary. Journalism and media predate the internet, the television
and the radio, and tragic events are tragic. But one of the few things
hundreds of millions of Americans can do in the wake of the Newtown
school shooting is to remember those who died and consider what we can
do to prevent such deaths in the future.
As for the idea naming a killer in the news inspires more deaths?
Hardly. America’s deadliest school massacre occurred the better part of a
century ago, before fame was linked to murder. (And for the record,
most fame-hound killers are too narcissistic to die with their crimes.
Anyone wishing to obtain fame this way is going to stick around for the
coverage.)
The root problem behind these shootings never was fame, and the idea it
is is one way people can minimize the impact as well as avoid addressing
real issues like access to mental health care and access to heavy
combat weapons in the civilian population.
#HashishTag@M4NH0
MT @olaasm “Write something insightful. Say Morgan Freeman said it. Win at internet.” -Morgan Freeman
16 Dec 12
The Morgan Freeman Connecticut school shooting hoax quote concludes:
“So congratulations, sensationalist media, you’ve just lit the fire for
someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward
next … You can help by forgetting you ever read this man’s name, and
remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to
mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the
problem. You can help by turning off the news.”
And there we have it — the real thrust of this supposed Morgan Freeman
rant on Newtown. Gun control. If you address the elephant in the room,
you are part of the problem.
Hell, you might as well go buy Adam Lanza a beer and a crown, because
clearly the media is at fault for the shootings in Newtown, and not a
series of cumulatively dangerous policies in America that make treating
severe mental illness more costly than buying up a shooting range and
going on a spree.
John Foley@jfoley3
tonight's nightly facebook summary: "OMG Morgan Freeman is so right."
"No wait that is totally a rumor, he did not say it, but spot on"
16 Dec 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
If you, like the people below, think Morgan Freeman is going to blame
talking about gun control for the deaths, you should remember he also
called the Tea Party “racist” back in 2011:
“It is a racist thing … [The rise of the Tea Party] shows the weak, dark
underside of America. We’re supposed to be better than that. We really
are. That’s why all those people were in tears when Obama was elected
president. ‘Ah look at what we are–this is America.’ Then it just sort
of started turning because these people surfaced–like stirring up muddy
water.”
While Morgan Freeman likely didn’t make these silly and off-base remarks
chiding the media and advocates for stricter gun control, it will also
likely continue being pushed out across the internet as people look for
plausible ways to deny we can actually do anything to prevent tragedies
like the one yesterday in Newtown, Connecticut.
It’s totally fine if you think detailing the facts of a tragedy killed
26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary. But please stop putting words in
Morgan Freeman‘s mouth.
Johnny Ragin III @Glory_IIIERA
Morgan Freeman's wisdom is beyond our years. Take a minute to read his
take on the events that've taken place this week. #Enlightened
16 Dec 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
Matt Otskey@Ots23
Morgan Freeman gets it. Too bad the media won't change. That is the real
problem #MassShootings #TheTruth pic.twitter.com/LSfzzSVj
16 Dec 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
tammy moss@mrstmossy
just read on facebook an article written by morgan freeman about yesterdays atrocities and he is so true x
16 Dec 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
EDIT: Much of the credence given this Morgan Freeman Newtown “quote”
comes from a post on Examiner. However, please note the author does not
cite a source and adds:
“This examiner happened to stumble across the words of Morgan Freeman
and his thoughts on the event on Friday as well as other mass
shootings.”
Examiner did not directly receive comment from Morgan Freeman on the Sandy Hook shooting, as many have suggested.
UPDATE: In a Reddit thread about the Morgan Freeman Newtown shooting
quote hoax, Redditor Quintilian751 claims that the attribution to
Freeman began as a joke among friends about finding a way to make the
remarks a man named Mark from Vancouver made after the Sandy Hook
tragedy go viral on the internet.
The commenter provides a screenshot of the original quote by the man,
and subsequent joking about attributing it to “Morgan Freeman or Betty
White.” While the screenshot is not definitive proof the quote stems
from here, the timeline also precedes the quote’s popularity and may
well be the source for the spurious remark.