After “Fences” star Denzel Washington found himself at the center of a fake news story earlier this year, the actor blasted the media for selling “B.S.”
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do read it, you’re misinformed,” Washington said at the Tuesday premiere of “Fences” inside the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., according to The Hill.
“In our society, now it’s just first — who cares, get it out there,” Washington added. “We don’t care who it hurts. We don’t care who we destroy. We don’t care if it’s true.”
He continued, “Just say it, sell it. Anything you practice you’ll get good at — including B.S.”
Earlier this year, a news report claimed Washington was switching his support from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump. Then, in November, a story from the American News’ Facebook page read that Washington praised Trump, saying, “We need more and more jobs. He has hired more employees, more people, than anyone I know in the world.”
However, the actor’s publicist told BBC News that “the story is 100 percent complete fabrication.” Snopes reported that ANews24 published the false claim back in August, lifting passages from an interview in the New York Post with civil rights activist Charles Evers.
The 61-year-old Oscar winner added that the media has “the need to be first, not even to be true anymore.”
“So what a responsibility you all have — to tell the truth,” Washington added.
“Fences,” based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning August Wilson play of the same name, follows a black family in 1950s Pittsburgh.
Troy (Washington) is the head of the household, but is bitter about his life working as a trash collector. His son Cory (Jovan Adepo) dreams of a better life, but gets nothing but disdain from his father. Throughout it all, Troy’s wife Rose (Viola Davis) tries to hold everything together.
“Fences” will open in theaters on Dec. 25.