Morgan Freeman Death Hoax: How It Happened

By Zach Dionne Posted Dec 17th 2010 08:58AM

For a few minutes Thursday afternoon, it seemed like Morgan Freeman had suddenly died, with CNN supposedly breaking the news.

Turns out it was just a regular guy on Twitter playing a joke that caught fire.

"How did the rumor begin?" Slate.com asks. "Blame it on @originalcjizzle, a guy with nearly 1,500 followers who is fond of calling people 'jive turkeys.' Just before 5PM ET, @originalcjizzle tweeted: RT @CNN: Breaking News: actor Morgan Freeman has passed away in his Burbank home<< wow legendary actor #RIPmorganfreeman."

C. Jizzle's post feigned CNN's authority; anyone can perform a manual retweet regardless of its veracity. "This is a common way to begin a hoax on the social network," Slate writes. "Nobody fact-checks anything on Twitter, so faking a CNN retweet is a good way to get your fake death notice to go viral."

UPDATE: C. Jizzle told PopEater via e-mail: "All I have to say right now is that I apologize to Mr. Freeman and to CNN," adding, by way of clarifying erroneous media reports about his origins -- "and I'm not a rapper."

Twitter user Peter Shankman, who WENN calls "Freeman's pal," quickly cleared up the rumor:

After much Internet buzz -- including, according to Mediaite, Borders Bookstore retweeting the false CNN post and adding, "Goodbye to another one of the greats" -- CNN jumped in to clear up the situation:

And eventually the originator of the hoax himself let loose a series of tweets explaining:

We're thrilled one of our finest actors (and arguably the hands-down finest voice) is alive and well -- although it's certainly disarming how much steam this rumor picked up compared to the fairly transparent death hoaxes surrounding Bill Cosby, Kanye West and Betty White.

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Tags: Morgan Freeman

Comments

(21)

Friday 17 December

By reeniebeenie

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I saw this and was so sad! I thought he died! Lol what the hell at people making crap like that up. Find something better to do with your time, thanks!

By drivingmsdaizy

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Um....isn't this the same dude who left his wife of 30+ years for his granddaughter!!!!!!!

By Entertainment2u-Twitter

I tweet ALL celeb death updates as soon as they are CONFIRMED.
If I don't tweet it, it's NOT TRUE!
So follow me instead of that lying creep.

By BTDT

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Just like in the movie "Red".
First he was dead, then he wasn't.
But then.................

By Tasha

How insensitive could this jerk be to start a rumor about a well loved actor and claim it was a joke and that it was just his way of joking around. Give me a break. Get a life, dude.

By svedli

Next thing you know we'll be told Elvis is dead.

Sunday 19 December

By D.

Did he have a bucket-list?

By evangelo

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BAD JOKE!!! WHY ON EARTH WOULD ANY BODY DO THAT????

By T.JIZZLE

DIS BE CRAZIIIIIIIIII~

By Ann

Not a funny joke, what a A-Hole to tweet that.........
I love Morgan.....it will break my heart the day he is in the obits.....

Saturday 18 December

By John

Well, faking one's death I believe is a felony, so I don't see why this kind of fraud isn't something as serious. If it's not on the books, then the lawmakers need to enact a law making it against the law.

By Becky Payne

Another felony...get the government to stop stupid people from making stupid jokes! Yep...Open another door to the government cuz some jerk ran his mouth. You can't fix stupid, and if you make it a felony, we better all get busy building wall to wall prisons.

Friday 31 December

By woman4life

Faking one's own death is just a little different, don't you think? Unless this guy was going to get some personal gain, get out of financial responsibilities, etc. by posting a tasteless joke. IT was foolish, but I think apologies should be accepted. If Twitter deleted his account over it, that would be a fitting penalty for his indescretion.

By Jerry

Relax folks its all for publicity.

By Lita

You are as big an idiot as the twit that twittered the story.

By ray

What a tragedy averted...what would his daughter/wife and his child/grandchild have done without a father/grandfather. See why father's day is so confusing?

By Let's get unconfused

He did not marry his child so your intended maliciousness is misplaced here. You may not agree with his choice to be involved with his child's adopted daughter, who is also a mature adult, but it is a legal union nonetheless. And has NOTHING to do with a sick hoax being perpetrated on him. I'm sure even you can agree that announcing a falsified death of anyone, including well-known persons, is wrong and should be punished in some way. Let's keep the focus & anger where it belongs...

By don

it would be a great loss. one of the best actor's alive today.

By Sususuu

This kind of thing happens far too often now days, and I just don't understand the rational behind it. What pleasure can someone take in making others think that someone died when they didn't? The guy who did this is a jerk and apparently, Twitter must think so too because his page no longer exists. Let's hope it stays that way.

By Show Me

Just goes to prove what I read in Ann Landers when I was a teenager, and it still holds true more than ever today - "don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see!" People who spend such enormous time on Facbook and Twitter, etc., why in the world don't you get out and get a real life? You all have my condolences, because you aren't living, you're busy killing your own life. Hours spent on those idiotic time wasters, are hours gone that you can NEVER GET BACK. What a waste.

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