tragedy that struck Newtown, Conn., on Friday, when a 20-year-old
gunman opened fire and killed at least 26 people, including 20
children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School. However, Morgan Freeman is
not one of those people. The actor has not released a comment on the
incident that took place a few days ago, despite numerous stories
reporting otherwise. The lengthy quote attributed to Morgan is indeed
an hoax. "Morgan neither made statements or posted those statements.
We are trying to find out who did, but they did not originate from
him," the actor's rep tells E! News. So what did the Oscar winner
allegedly say? The remark floating around online that was said to be
from Freeman stated the following, "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? 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." The falsely-attributed
quote continued, "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.
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.
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."