Morgan Freeman's take on the shooting - went viral on FB:"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."
UPDATE: Morgan Freeman's take on shooting is a fraud. This raises some of the major issues as to the use of social media in reporting "news" - some of which I have been watching evolve over the past few years much to my dismay.
See source below which claims it was a fraud:
http://www.contactmusic.com/news/morgan-freeman-newtown-shooting-comments-a-hoax_3423917
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."
UPDATE: Morgan Freeman's take on shooting is a fraud. This raises some of the major issues as to the use of social media in reporting "news" - some of which I have been watching evolve over the past few years much to my dismay.
See source below which claims it was a fraud:
http://www.contactmusic.com/news/morgan-freeman-newtown-shooting-comments-a-hoax_3423917
UPDATE 2: See comment #1 from matt below for the link that suggests the response to this shooting is to have more access to guns - that's right.
An interesting write-up for those of you keen on linking this thread to the socially responsible investing thread: Go through past shootings in the U.S. and tell me how the stock prices of major gun manufacturers reacted initially, and in the six months following.
Although this kind of fraud in the media is common, at least it was a way for a very positive message to spread to a large number of people.
ReplyDeleteforsyth please add
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/light-newtown-shooting-reaction-seems-carry-more-guns-164420952.html
This is my weekly post:
ReplyDeleteTo begin with, Wow. Just wow. That tragic event in Connecticut really isn't something I want to be hearing about not only so close to Christmas, but ever. My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected in this tragic event.
I was shocked to see that Morgan Freeman did not actually make that statement, but now that I think about it, I can see why someone would post the comment to him. The media seems to care all the time about celebrities or people who live near us (country, city, etc.). A good example of this is the Amanda Todd tragedy, it was quite sad and cyber bullying is a growing issue but at the same time we are still trying to get equal women's rights in some parts of the world! While everyone became Anti-bullying activists, a young girl named Malala Yousafazi was shot by the Taliban for stand up for women's rights and I didn't see anyone over here whether it be Facebook, Twitter, etc. even mention about Malala - I know this has nothing to do with the topic, but it just goes to show how the media really seems to shape how we see things and they decide what to show and tell us if it will get them more views or whatnot. Even now if you turn on the news or go online to any website an article will probably have to do with Kate Middleton being pregnant... I really don't know why that is considered "news" but somehow things like this make it into the same pages as the Connecticut tragedy.
I looked more into this hoax hoping to see someone admit it was them and I found that a man in Vancouver posted the original rant on Facebook and it went viral as soon as he said "If I know the internet, someone will attribute the quote to Morgan Freeman or Betty White and it'll go viral" (1). A lot of people did accuse him for trying to make fun of the whole situation but he then defended himself by saying that he wasn't making fun of anything, the reason why the rant went viral was because it was attached to a celebrity (2). I strongly agree with that, as sad as it sounds I do not think the man's rant went viral if it wasn't attach to any celebrity. Now a lot of readers right now are asking in their heads "great, now WHO did all of this? What is his name? " His name was Mark Price and I left his name out on purpose; I did this to prove my point: many people don't care what happens or what they do, they just care about who - It is what the media has made us to believe. if I never put posted his name here a lot of people would go nuts because they don't have a name to satisfy their curiosity, whether his name matters or not.
Sources:
1. http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/celebrity/Fake+Morgan+Freeman+rant+Newtown+Connecticut/7710111/story.html
2. http://movies.yahoo.com/news/newtown-school-shootings-morgan-freeman-says-statement-hoax-220005263.html
In my opinion is almost sad really, how it seems that the only reasons people care or hear about these horrible acts is by being said by a "celebrity" when clearly there are much better sources to learn this kind of information from.
ReplyDelete