CNN has responded to Morgan Freeman's request that it retract a story in which the actor was accused of inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment. The network denied the request Thursday on the grounds that it failed to show any libelous or false statements from the report.
The retraction request "is rife with empty speculation, overheated rhetoric, and in some instances plainly false assertions," wrote David C. Vigilante, CNN's senior vice president of legal, in a letter addressed to Freeman attorney Robert M. Schwartz that includes a point-by-point discussion of the story's claims.
"Rather than identify any specific aspects of the CNN's (sic) report are false or wrong you engage in a lengthy and baseless ad hominem attack on one of the women who reported the story _ because she too was the recipient of these kinds of unwanted remarks _ and outright mischaracterizations of the report itself," Vigilante wrote.
The news network said in a statement earlier this week that it would stand by its reporting.
In the story, seven anonymous women and CNN reporter Chloe Melas said Freeman looked at them in a sexual way, made comments with "sexual undertones" about their bodies or clothing, or engaged in unwanted touching such as neck massages in the workplace.
"The overheated protestations in your letter do not cast any shadow on the central gravamen of CNN's story ...," Vigilante wrote. "And when you consider the admissions Mr. Freeman has made, the aspects of CNN's reporting that are not challenged by you and the subsequent revelations of others who were victimized by your client it is abundantly clear that the report was accurate."
He then went on to accuse Freeman attorney Schwartz's firm of a number of conflicts of interest in representing other entities linked to CNN.
In the Tuesday retraction request sent to CNN President Jeff Zucker, Schwartz called the May 24 article the result of a "yearlong witch hunt" that has caused damage to the 80-year-old actor's reputation and career.
Melas, one of two reporters on the piece, "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," Schwartz said in the letter.
The day the article was published, Freeman issued a statement, apologizing to "anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected," saying he would never "intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy."
