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He wrote, \"Ms. Melas nonetheless made a conscious decision to treat Mr. Freeman’s comment as a form of sexual harassment, and then set out on a crusade to vilify him.\"

He added that \"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 also pointed out that WGN producer Tyra Martin, who was identified as one of Freeman's accusers, has publicly denied that the actor harassed her and has said CNN misrepresented her comments.

Martin, who interviewed the actor on nine different occasions, was described in the CNN piece as feeling \"in on the joke\" when it came to Freeman's comments about her appearance. She was also quoted as saying that only one of his comments crossed the line.

\"When I stood up, I pulled my skirt part of my dress down and he did say, 'Oh, don't pull it down now.' That gave me pause but I never felt uncomfortable,\" the CNN story quoted Martin.

After the story broke, Martin told WGN, \"Some misreporting got out that I was uncomfortable or that he had made sexual remarks to me every time. That’s just not the case. I never said that.\"

She told WGN the incident \"gave me pause,\" but added, \"I never felt uncomfortable or in danger.\"

Martin also denied being harassed. \"I’m sorry for anyone who’s had an unfortunate experience or feels harassed or assaulted. That wasn’t my experience with Morgan Freeman. The interviews were always fun for me,\" she said.

Schwartz wrote that the CNN report has \"inflicted substantial harm\" on the actor. Last week, Visa announced that it was suspending its marketing work with Morgan.

\"Mr. Freeman is being viewed in the global court of public opinion as someone akin to notorious harassers and accused rapists, such as Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey. CNN had no justification for doing that,\" he concluded.

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