Many Facebook users read and shared a statement over the weekend blaming the media for sensationalizing the school shootings in Newtown, Conn. that was attributed to actor Morgan Freeman.

"It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single *victim* of Columbine? Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody," the statement said.

The statement quickly became an internet sensation. One person's post of the statement was shared more than 12,000 times.

But Freeman never made that statement or any other on the shootings, his publicist Stan Rosenfield told TheWrap.com Sunday. He said the actor's camp was trying to determine the origin of the statement.

Reddit users indicated that the origins of the "statement" that was attributed to Freeman may be a Facebook post by "Mark" of Vancouver, according to The Inquisitor .

"Mark" later joked with a commented on his own post, "If I know the Internet, someone will attribute the quote to Morgan Freeman or Betty White and it'll go viral."