Two necessary updates. One, via Reddit: “It’s fake—It’s wise—It’s best read in Freeman’s voice, regardless.” Also via Reddit: “There are several people saying saying that it hasn’t been proven Morgan said this but I still COMPLETELY agree with the message either way… And come on, all things just sound better in Morgan Freeman’s voice. Proof : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7Gx1FYuaCo&t=0m50s ” End Reddit excerpt. See my comment below the post re the gun control point.

And, two: not “all news” is guilty of this hype, equally. The NY Times, for example, focused on the victims of 9/11, say–doing an article on every single one of the approx 3000 human beings who died that day. And, currently, they have a list of the victims on their front page, not a photo of the murderer. ~ Waylon Lewis, ed.

Morgan Freeman‘s brilliant take on what happened yesterday :

“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.

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. You can help by turning off the news.”

~ Morgan Freeman

(Via Elite Daily/Reddit)