‘F*ck the Media’: Morgan Freeman Goes Off on Cable News over Baltimore

[one_voice]

Morgan Freeman spoke with The Daily Beast today to discuss his new movie Five Flights Up, and he ended up addressing the cable news coverage surrounding the events this week in Baltimore. And boy, did he have a lot to say.

Freeman observed that in most serious situations when the media is covering live events, all CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC do is just throw out take after take after take, and “CNN wants to be pure news, but the others are just commentary. They’re just commenting on things.”


On Baltimore specifically, Freeman brought up the argument that the city has been suffering for a long time, and it took setting something on fire for the media to finally notice.

“Police have a standard reaction to shooting somebody. I fear for my life and I fear for my safety,” he said. “Now, at least you can see, ‘Hey, his hands were up in the air! What part of your safety were you afraid of? The guy was running away, what part of your safety was in danger?’”

He ended his comments by saying “Fuck the media.”

http://www.mediaite.com/online/fck-the-media-morgan-freeman-goes-off-on-cable-news-over-baltimore/

[rhett o rick]

1. Please let's promulgate this meme "I stand with Morgan Freeman. Fuck the media."

Please email it to all networks and news papers.

[sheshe2]

5. Now this I agree with!

Rhett!

[daleanime]

7. Hell yes....

[blm]

12. Been saying it for the last two decades.

FTM!

[Duval]

40. x 1,000!! nt

[Fantastic Anarchist]

32. Along with "We want Bernie!"

[BrotherIvan]

2. DAMN RIGHT!!!!

[SMG]

8. Second Amendment

Gun Lovers want anyone to have any gun anywhere anytime for whatever reason, including children. Of course, they don't want that right extended to Blacks and non-Whites.

[GP6971]

13. What does your post

have to do with the OP???

[ManiacJoe]

16. Little early in your posting history to be that

blatant with the strawmen, isn't it?

[PatrynXX]

49. more like thats GODDAMN RIGHT!!

don't like the work but fuck it it's in the movie


right now the movie is running like the othersides version of Shawshank Redemption. where Andy isn't white he's black and he's being thrown around in a van. with possibly a paid off criminal saying bullshit

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. And that's exactly why people set things on fire.

the city has been suffering for a long time, and it took setting something on fire for the media to finally notice.

Protests without violence get minimal coverage, with violence, the media stays glued to them.

[Fumesucker]

4. God said it, I believe it, that settles it...

Fuck. The. Media

[madokie]

6. I'm a big fan of Morgan Freeman

If I was in a position where 'going off on the media' would help I'd be right there with him.

[Scurrilous]

9. K & R

[cindyperry]

10. more thruth

has never been spoken

[blackspade]

11. Awesome!

[lovemydog]

14. Fuck Corporate Media

would make a nice button

[For Freddie]

47. Who are they playing to?

I often wonder who watches MSM and believes it ? Then I call my 92 year old Mum and listen. All of her friends in her assisted living place were brought up on the radio and FDR's Fireside Chats. They still read the newspapers and they naively believe because it is in the paper and on CNN it must be the truth. While the rest of world sees it for what it is.

Why do they persist in this idiocy? It only fuels conflict and
the inevitable Fire Next Time. Are they so afraid of a united people that they continue to use passe communication to keep the present
dysfunctional system in place a few minutes longer? Is this their plan for stealing another election? The Big Lie has worn so thin it is hardly worth the money they spend. There must be great tax advantages.

This is all they got?
And the money spent on this crap could transform our society into a functional one. They still hammer on and on the Racist, Sexist, Homophobic bull shit of 100 years ago and as long as they are raking in the $$$ it seems to be all good.

So... We got Women, Blacks, Latinos, GBLT, New Immigrant citizens, and everyone else. They got Right Wing Crazies, Evangelicals, Oil Dragons , Israel,and the very wealthy. They use $$$ to offset their minority status, so they can float another fugazi win in an election. I don't think that is going to work this time.

As Jimmy Morrison said, "5 to 1, 1 to 5,
no one here gets out alive. You got the guns, we got the numbers."
As they say in AA, "Nothing changes if nothing changes".
This goes beyond votes and elections.

And when I explain to me Mum what is really happening all she says is "Those bastards". She wants to live long enough to see the change. I hope she makes it.

[lovemydog]

58. Yes, i believe they are afraid of unified opposition.

That's why they do so much to split all these groups, get them fighting amongst themselves instead of aiming their energies toward the proper targets. You will notice a lot of that here at DU if you haven't already. Posters criticizing women, blacks, latinos, GBLT, new immigrant citizens, democratic socialists, mainstream democrats and more conservative democrats. Sometimes incessantly. I don't buy into that nonsense, and it appears you don't either. Welcome here, I hope you stick around and keep reading and posting more. We need more people here at DU with your thoughts.

[Cha]

15. I've been saying the immortal words of Morgan Freeman for over a decade.."Fuck the Media".

mahalo one_voice

[seveneyes]

17. Fucking the media fucks the voice fucking the media

Friends and family was and is more than a schtick to isolate the one voice that can portend the truth and light of the enlightened and visible.

Kill the media and you just may as well be killing the voice you desire.

[spanone]

18. it's TMZ 24/7

i agree. fuck the media.

[Iris]

19. Love him so much.

A national treasure.

[gordianot]

20. Remember the old cop shows where they chased the suspect?

They would come to an alley the runner then jumped the barrier and police would follow. That is not going to happen today with a 15 lb bullet proof vest a utility belt that rivals Batman and a high powered radio you may have added 25 lbs. Don't forget the jelly donuts you ate an hour ago. Probably on a sugar high. So what does the Police do they shoot him and do not break a sweat. In the immortal words of POS wannabe George Zimmerman "They always get away". Never mind you really did not commit a crime, run you are dead.

An overweight angry sweating cop on a power trip is one of the deadliest hazards any one can encounter in 21st Century America. Add to that the courts for the most part say that is OK even to wannabe non cop.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

42. ...or tripped them by throwing their billy clubs at them!

[gordianot]

44. I notice they do move quickly to plant evidence.

There may be a police agenda but there is also a lack of being able to do the job and clunking around. I remember Mr. Sea hunt in that very clip.

[Jackpine Radical]

45. The Fat Blue Line.

Modern cops are more like WWI-vintage tanks--slow & heavily armed--than like like those old Navy pursuit vessels used for catching pirates.

And of course, cops are the most overweight profession.

The way the authorities are equipping the cops these days, it makes ya think a little about just what purposes they foresee for these critters.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. Can't let him get away! They all look alike!

[oldandhappy]

23. The non-stop on Baltimore has driven me nutz.

Unfortunately for MSNBC but fortunately for me! I rediscovered BBC and PBS and will continue to enjoy them for now. Stopped watching the other guys several days ago. Is there a world outside of Baltimore? One wonders! The NYT had other stories, so why don't the producers know of other stories??

[New Orleans Strong]

24. what if...

What if that wonderful young community organizer wasn't arrested last night. What if incredible young men like him spoke up? What if some young protesters said that while we are the ones beaten, you should kinda wake up. They do it to you - but without death beatings. What if we listened to young black men from Baltimore? What if we realised that this is exactly what is wanted, and every channel played only this?. What if African Americans FINALLY woke us up to "this happens to us every day. But you vote to make this happen to yourselves and call it FREEDOM!! What if you watch propaganda all day? And then vote for our demise? And I despair

[calimary]

25. This really makes me sad.

Because, sadly, it's also true.

I Love Morgan Freeman. He is distinguished and elegant, and eloquent.

Takes me back to the whole "Stand Your Ground" thing, wherein we first became really acutely acquainted with this latter-day defense - "I feared for my life." I sometimes imagine a commonly shared scripted line - "I feared for my life, I thought he had a gun, I thought he had a taser, he reached for his waistband, I was in fear for my life." And as it's shared, it's stressed - "you need to make sure you say THOSE things. Those Specific Things. And you're home free. You'll beat the rap." I can't help but wonder whether such a conversation is actually a shared thing, behind closed doors, in the privacy of the patrol car, in private.

There ARE scripts that are sent around. Just watch it in politics. Notice how many different operatives on one side of an issue use the same language, the same memes, the same framing, and they're all saying the same things. The same words and wordings. Sometimes even the same vocal inflections. It made me think back to Selection 2000, when GOP operative after GOP operative said the same things. Parroted the same things. "They counted once, they counted AGAIN, then they counted a THIRD TIME..." - said again and again, all over the place, as the GOP and bush/cheney people hoped to manipulate public opinion toward their contention that the vote count should be stopped. We're ahead. And that's that. We won. It was like watching a bunch of Chatty Cathy dolls - pull the string and they all say the same things. From the same blast-faxed, mass-emailed script.

[Hekate]

53. By the way, didn't the Stand Your Ground laws emanate from ALEC?

Speaking of scripts.

[calimary]

54. Yep. Sure did.

One of many pieces of shit that rained down on unsuspecting citizens and gullible, lazy Democrats - from the lovely ALEC people.

[Beartracks]

26. God has spoken.

NO ONE could possible say "fuck the media" with as much gravitas.



=====================

[BlancheSplanchnik]

27. !!!

Morgan Freeman, YES. Fuck the damn propaganda media

[ChiciB1]

28. Is He Saying CNN Is Reporting Better Than MSNBC And

all the rest of MSM?? I haven't watched them in YEARS, can't stand "Wolfie!"

[davidpdx]

38. I'm a little surprised he said that as well

The dude has the right to his own opinion, but CNN picks on the corpses just as much as the other networks.

[MADem]

46. I watched CNN for the first time in over a year yesterday, and their Baltimore coverage was superb.

They had reporters in the streets interviewing regular people. They mixed it up with segments that filled out the story and covered all the issues. It was solid coverage. Short on editorializing, long on facts.

Don't know if they do that all the time, like I said, I only saw them the one day.

[Hekate]

55. Unfortunately they don't do that all the time, & their coverage is different depending ...

....on whether you are in the U.S. or the rest of the world. I really resent that we get the dumbed-down version.

However, MSNBC is losing me rapidly. I tune in during the day West coast time while I'm in the kitchen, and it's gotten worse and worse. Sometimes I watch whole episodes, but in recent days there were at least 3 solid hours in a row of repetitive Baltimore coverage, very little of it actually informative, so I just kept turning it off. I kept checking as I went through my day, and ultimately I think they were actually doing 5 hours in a row.

On the upside, I have actually resumed reading the morning newspaper with my coffee.

[MADem]

56. The American CNN does focus on American news. But really, it should--it's broadcasting to USA.

When I used to watch CNN, I would switch between the US version and the INTERNATIONAL version which is way higher up on the dial--I preferred the latter at night, when the sun was coming up on the other side of the world.

[Hekate]

60. My kitchen TV is more limited; Cox Cable made us choose one TV to get the full range

...of what we pay them for, so we chose the one in the living room. I've discovered an alternate public TV channel elsewhere on the dial, so if I remember I can choose to watch NHK in the evening.

[MADem]

63. Can you buy (rent) another box for the kitchen? Might be worthwhile

if you have a lot of competition for the screen.

Also, do those bums offer streaming on the computer or your smartphone? If so, you can "throw" the signal from your computer/phone to the tv with a chromecast or some other geegaw plugged into the other tv, or just get an HDMI cord and do it that way!

[davidpdx]

64. I'm actually overseas and when a big even happens the switch over to CNN US

coverage here in Asia. I agree with you though that sometimes their coverage is subpar.

[Enthusiast]

29. Fuck the media!

[bulloney]

30. Anyone who saw that smarmy-faced Geraldo Rivera the other night in Baltimore

can't help saying, "Fuck the media!"

What passes as MSM news today would be regarded as a joke by instructors when I was studying journalism in college.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

31. I can imagine him still saying this in his calm voice.

Am I weird?

[bonniebgood]

33. Psssst DO SOMETHING. Cut the fu*king cable. It's good for your

health. Money speaks louder than words. Fire gets media attention like teabags rallies.

[lostnfound]

34. MSNBC covers police violence and race issues CONSISTENTLY, without fires.

Melissa Harris-Perry covers racial bias, Lawrence O'Donnell is passionate about police violence - wrote a book about it ten years ago, Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow regularly dove into the topic with numerous cases that did not involve riots, giving airtime to hear the voices of the victims and their families.

[bigbrother05]

36. Don't forget Rev Al and Ed

MSNBC is more front and center on economic and rights issues

[Dont call me Shirley]

35. I stand with Morgan. FUCK the corporate/oligarch media!

[davidpdx]

37. I'd love to see the video of that

I can almost image what it sounded like when it came out of his mouth, but it would be sweet to hear it.

[heaven05]

39. I agree

[Initech]

41. [phone]!!!

Fuck the media.

[hunter]

43. Television news is a dozen slightly different flavors of bullshit.

Good television journalism is such a rare thing I've given up on it entirely.

I read my local paper and have maybe half a dozen internet sources I can trust, but only for certain things, they all have their faults.

Beyond those sources the bullshit gets thicker and thicker and tougher to wade through, until you reach places like Fox News or the British tabloids, where the bullshit and propaganda are so thick and compressed, you can walk on top of it.

[Eleanors38]

59. I can't get close enough to whiff the diff.

[BeanMusical]

48. Totally agree with him.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

51. Not sure why he didn't end with

Fuck the police.

Yeah, they're not all bad, yada yada yada. Tell that to the families of the cop-killed victims. No cop who doesn't speak out against this crap is a good cop.

[shirleyplz]

57. love MF even more

big fan of his, especially Through the wormhole on sci channel
& great on him calling out media for its fickle coverage

[uponit7771]

61. +1, I would've loved to hear Freeman say that!!!

[raven mad]

62. Who needs a meme when you've got Freeman?

I am most impressed.