I'd worked in military journalism...

but it was my first news director when I started working in the private news sector that first said this aphorism to me.  We were discussing how to prioritize news items and they said "if it bleeds, it leads". 

I point this out because those who call Morgan Freeman's comments on the media "brilliant" may hold that opinion, but there is another.  Opinions can't be wrong or right, but I wholeheartedly disagree that his words were "brilliant", although he raises a few good points.  Blaming the media and calling them sensationalist is not one of them.

The sad truth is that news, like every other profit-making venture in this world is subject to the basic law of economics.  Supply and demand.  As long as there is a demand for extensive coverage of tragedies like what happened in Connecticut, the media will supply it.  As long as the public is fascinated by the people who commit these atrocities, the media will feed that fascination.  They are giving the public what it wants.  It is NOT incumbent on the media to engage in self-censorship and not cover the news of the day because some people find it offensive.

If the majority of those who watch news did find it offensive, they'd tune out.  They'd write letters.  They would vote with their dollars and stop patronizing businesses who sponsor such news coverage.  That's not happening.

Freeman says "CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another...".  The truth is that we as a society are fascinated by metrics.  Business uses them in every decision made.  We measure the success of films by the percentage of critics that give it a favorable rating on a website (rottentomatoes.com).  We read a weekend summary of the box office totals weekly, to determine which film "won" the battle.  We are innundated with polls that talk about every aspect of life.  We're told the economy is better or worse by a metric of consumer confidence.   Face facts folks, we are obsessed with measuring and comparing anything and everything.

Freeman did get two things right.  One is that this latest episode of mass shooting has its root cause in mental health and not gun control.  The other is that if you do want to make a difference, turn off the news and encourage everyone you know to do likewise.  If enough people were to tune out because of these tragedies, eventually metrics would tell the media to stop sensationalizing mass murderers.  But until those metrics indicate such coverage is a money-losing proposition, nothing will change.