In the wake of a tragedy, people look to authority figures for guidance.

The same happened with the Sandy Hook massacre recently. Earlier today, a statement, attributed to Morgan Freeman was being spread around various social media outlets, mainly Facebook. The text of the statement blamed the media and the sensationalist approach to tragedy for instances of wanton violence. While it sounds interesting and perhaps offers a new perspective on the events, the entire text, copied and pasted numerous times in Twitter and Facebook statuses, is a hoax. The quote does not belong to Morgan Freeman and the actor never actually issued a statement on the events.

The entire thing originated when the status started circulating with the quote being attributed to an anonymous source. Reddit users traced the text back to a long post by “Mark” of Facebook, on which the user had commented “If I know the internet, someone will attribute the quote to Morgan Freeman or Betty White and it'll go viral.” Apparently he was right and the text was making the rounds soon enough, as per the running joke on the internet that everything sounds intelligent if you hear it in a Morgan Freeman voice. While the hoax has been debunked, the status is still making the rounds.