The Odd Case Of The Politician Who Falsely Believed Morgan Freeman Liked Him
With all the big stories in this election, there was one smaller story that is just too bizarre to be missed. On Politico, Ben Smith has been following the tale of B.J. Lawson, who just lost his congressional campaign in North Carolina and is getting in quite a bit of trouble for saying that Morgan Freeman voiced one of his campaign ads. Now there’s a war of words between the candidate and MEI Political, the company behind the ad, over whether or not they lied to him about the soundalike.
The story starts on Halloween when Lawson uploaded a new ad with narration by what sounded like Morgan Freeman, a man with a gorgeous and trustworthy voice who has used it to tell us the inspirational tale of Andy Dufresne’s quest for freedom, about the struggles of the beautiful emperor penguins, and how one man can you the powers of the Almighty Himself to make his girlfriend’s boobs look awesome. When people on Facebook began asking if the voice belonged to the famous actor, Lawson responded in the positive. However, God, Himself Freeman, himself quickly shut down this claim, calling Lawson and his team liars (something Lawson’s opponent, David Price, was only so happy to do as well).
However, instead of admitting they lied, Lawson’s team claimed they were lied to, saying that MEI told them it was the real Freeman. MEI then responded by forwarding out an email they had sent to Lawson’s campaign clearly stating that the narrator would merely be a soundalike meant to evoke Freeman.
Well, that’s the end of the story, right? Lawson’s just a liar, clearly, or just too dumb to read his emails all the way. Um…wait. It continues.
Another Republican campaign, that of New York’s Bob Cohen, then provided more emails in which MEI’s Ben Mathis promised them the real Morgan Freeman and claimed that the actor was a friend of his who did the ads “as a favor.”
So, who’s lying? Was the Lawson campaign lying to voters and trying to get them to think that a famous actor was totally in his corner? Or was MEI actively trying to trick politicians into paying for ads with the promise of Morgan Freeman? Either way. the whole thing sounds like a plot for a movie. Maybe it could star that great actor, the older black guy with the awesome voice. You know the one! James Earl Jones.
Check out the whole story (with the full emails) on Politico here. Watch the original Lawson ad below.
