Morgan Freeman has released his legal hounds on CNN demanding a retraction story from their sexual harassment allegation story against him on Thursday, May 24th.
According to a 10-page letter sent to CNN president Jeff Zucker obtained by the Hollywood Reporter . Freeman’s legal team claims the story has defamed and “inflicted serious injury” on the actor’s reputation and career.
“At a minimum, CNN immediately needs to issue a retraction and apologize to Mr. Freeman through the same channels, and with the same level of attention, that it used to unjustly attack him on May 24,” reads the letter from attorney Robert M. Schwartz. “CNN also needs to retract the portions of the story that concern Lori McCreary and apologize to her for defaming and injuring her.”
Freeman’s lawyer says they have begun an investigation into the story and shared some of the findings of their review:
Of the three people CNN identified as being a “victim,” the first, CNN’s own Chloe Melas, had no reasonable basis to have interpreted what Mr. Freeman said or did at the Going In Style interview last year as having been directed at her or as any form of harassment. The videotape confirms that his statement had nothing to do with her and was not harassing. And an independent third party, the Warner Bros. Human Resources Department, investigated her claim and concluded that it was not supported by the facts.
The second person CNN identified, Tyra Martin, has gone on record twice since CNN published the article to state that CNN misrepresented what she said to CNN and that Mr. Freeman did not harass her.
The third person CNN identified, Lori McCreary, told CNN that Mr. Freeman never harassed her. And as to CNN’s gratuitous sideswipe at Ms. McCreary herself, yet another independent party investigated the claim when CNN raised it, and found it to be meritless.
Ms. Melas baited and prodded supposed “witnesses” to say bad things about Mr. Freeman and tried to get them to confirm her bias against him. Thus, no reader of the article can have any confidence that any of the anonymous sources, which make up the balance of CNN’s article, can be relied upon at all.
On May 24 CNN reported, that eight women accused Freeman of sexual misconduct. The eight accusers described multiple incidents of Freeman’s alleged inappropriate behavior throughout his career. In all, 16 people spoke to the news outlet as part of the investigation; eight witnesses and eight who claim to be victims. CNN entertainment reporter Chloe Melas — who co-authored the article with An Phung — was the only victim who spoke on the record.
Since the story broke Morgan Freeman has released two statements on Thursday and a lengthier response over the weekend.
“Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy. I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected — that was never my intent.”
“I am devastated that 80 years of my life is at risk of being undermined, in the blink of an eye, by Thursday’s media reports.
All victims of assault and harassment deserve to be heard. And we need to listen to them. But it is not right to equate horrific incidents of sexual assault with misplaced compliments or humor.
I admit that I am someone who feels a need to try to make women — and men — feel appreciated and at ease around me. As a part of that, I would often try to joke with and compliment women, in what I thought was a light-hearted and humorous way.
Clearly I was not always coming across the way I intended. And that is why I apologized Thursday and will continue to apologize to anyone I might have upset, however unintentionally.
But I also want to be clear: I did not create unsafe work environments. I did not assault women. I did not offer employment or advancement in exchange for sex. Any suggestion that I did so is completely false.
—Morgan Freeman
With the rise of the #MeToo movement, more alleged sexual harassment victims are coming to the forefront to seek justice. In the case of Morgan Freeman, he is standing behind his innocence and will not allow his character and career be destroyed. Morgan Freeman has had a legendary career in Hollywood appearing in over 85 movies and winning 33 awards.
