Freeman seeks CNN retraction
Morgan Freeman’s lawyer has demanded CNN retract its story accusing the actor of sexual harassment, calling it the fruit of a “year-long witch hunt” against the 80-year-old star that has caused damage to his reputation and career.
According to a letter sent Tuesday, reporter Chloe Melas misinterpreted a remark that was not intended for her — a misinterpretation that Warner Bros.’ human-relations department, which reviewed tape of the interview and chose not to investigate further, found without merit — and used her own experience as the premise for the rest of her reporting with co-author An Phung.
Freeman’s team demanded Tuesday that CNN at the very least “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.”
In a statement, a spokesman for CNN said: “The unfounded accusations made by Mr. Freeman’s lawyer are disappointing and are difficult to reconcile with Mr. Freeman’s own public statements in the aftermath of the story.
“CNN stands by its reporting and will respond forcefully to any attempt by Mr. Freeman or his representatives to intimidate us from covering this important public issue.”
One of the women named in the report, Freeman’s Revelations Entertainment co-founder Lori McCreary, has twice gone on record since the article came out to say that CNN misinterpreted her remarks, the lawyer’s letter says.
The other named woman, producer Tyra Martin of WGN, also said her comments were misconstrued.
“Some misreporting got out that I was uncomfortable or that he had made sexual remarks to me every time,” Martin said.
“That’s just not the case. I never said that. It got picked up. And then someone else picks it up. And then it gets somewhere else. And now it’s in print. And it looks like the truth. And it’s just not.”
The letter, from lawyer Robert M. Schwartz to CNN president Jeff Zucker, says 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.”
After the article was published last week, Freeman issued a statement, saying he would never “intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy. I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected — that was never my intent,” he said.
Freeman since has had campaigns for Visa and Vancouver Transit suspended pending investigation.
He later said: “I am devastated that 80 years of my life is at risk of being undermined, in the blink of an eye, by media reports.”