A funny thing happened this week.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) defended the cold-blooded murder fest, but few in the press blinked an eye.
Here's why: Many journalists, commentators, and editors, like Warren and Ocasio-Cortez, hold extreme political views that some political violence can be rationalized and even defended.
UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed on a New York City street last week. Suspected shooter Luigi Mangione was arrested a few days later at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania.
Thompson has a wife and two sons. hairdresser and grain elevator operator. Mangione is a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate. owns a country club. In 2016, Mangione graduated from college. $40,000 per year Preparatory school.
The left's reaction to Thompson's murder was a typical mix of gleeful cruelty and dorm-room-robusting revolutionary nonsense. That's not particularly noteworthy. What is remarkable, however, is that Thompson's jubilation over his execution is characterized not as the mad joy of bloodthirsty Jacobins, but as the cry of justice of an oppressed people.
“The visceral reaction of people across the country who feel deceived, ripped off, and threatened by the despicable conduct of their insurance companies should serve as a warning to everyone involved in the health care system,” Warren said. he said. huffpo. The senator added: “Violence is never the answer, but there are limits to how far people can be pushed.” “This is a warning that if you push people too hard, they'll lose faith in their government's ability to make change, they'll lose faith in the ability of the people providing health care to make change, and they'll start trying to solve problems. In their own hands, they will eventually become a threat to everyone.”
Little is known about Mangione's motives or personal or medical circumstances. The idea that he allegedly killed Thompson over personal medical difficulties remains speculative.
Later, on the steps of the Capitol, Ocasio-Cortez echoed Warren's sentiments. “I'm not saying that acts of violence are justified, but for people who are confused, shocked, appalled, [by the celebratory response]People need to understand that they interpret, feel, and experience denied claims as acts of violence against them. ”
If I were a prominent member of an organization it is hated More than Wall Street, Big Pharma, or the news media, I want to avoid combining assassination with sympathetic rationalization.
Tacitly endorsing the killing of society's “parasites” in the name of “justice” means that congressmen and professors earn six-figure salaries on the backs of students and taxpayers. If the neo-Robespierres understood that everything involved production activities, they would not think it was so legitimate and rational. There are few tangible benefits in the real world.
And if I were a lawmaker who advocated nationalizing healthcare, I wouldn't justify killing healthcare administrators either. What do you think will happen when people are suffering under National Health Insurance and there is an existing licensing system that allows people to shoot medical personnel if they are denied medical care?
But I digress.
As a quick exercise, let's imagine Mangione murders an abortion doctor, sparking days of celebration on right-wing social media. For example, if Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) justified this celebration as the natural reaction of people who sincerely believe that abortion is murder, what would be the reaction of polite society? Or?
How do you think the media will react? It will be shocking and disgusting, and rightly so. However, the media's shock over Ocasio-Cortez and Warren's comments has not spread. I don't see any major outcry against their rationalizations. Because, unlike the deranged right, the deranged left enjoys representation in the news media.
See if you can spot the difference between what Warren said and, say, how CBS covered the assassination.
“The 50-year-old husband and father of two sons was laid to rest on Monday. But voices online see him as nothing more than the face of a $5 trillion medical conglomerate. In their eyes, It shows the barriers to affordable health care,” reporter Mark Strassman said on an evening news program this week. “For many of these critics, this is a business model built on refusing to pay for services. In 2023, United Healthcare denied approximately 33% of all claims, which is the highest in the industry. The industry-wide ratio was 19%.
The CBS crew then interviewed a “medical ethicist” who said United Healthcare denied her claims of a hysterectomy.
“Were you sad?” [Thompson’s] family? ” a CBS reporter asked.
“Yes,” Wilson replied.
“But you also grieved for all the people his company rejected, right?” asked CBS.
Wilson replied, “Yes.”
UnitedHealthcare ultimately approved Wilson's claim. This raises an obvious question. What was the purpose of this CBS show, if not to lend a sympathetic ear to the assassin's dubious motives?
Elsewhere at CBS, the morning crew played a clip of a TikTok user. the user said in response to Thompson's killing. “Americans just went through it. We went through it at the mercy of corporate America.”
CBS anchor Gayle King responded, “She speaks for a lot of people there, but this isn't really about this tragedy.” Dr. King then asked CBS News medical contributor Celine Gounder: “Do you think this could bring about change in the insurance industry?” …But some people are wondering if something good might come out of this tragedy, if the insurance companies “don't tell us… Do you think they will say, “I can do this, but I need to do better?''
Do you remember those days? looked like everyone else ” I was concerned aboutstochastic terrorismBorn out of political rhetoric? Are they no longer doing that?
MSNBC anchor Joy Reid said: “Let's be clear: there is real hatred against these companies happening right now, not just on social media, but in real life. At the time of his murder, the victim, Brian Thompson, He was the CEO of the largest private insurance company in the United States.
“As CEO, he was embroiled in a consolidation lawsuit that made United Airlines swallow up dozens of insurance companies over the decades, making it not only the largest insurance company in the United States, but also the largest in the world by profit.” is all about consolidation and profit, with basically four or five companies controlling everything, and the health care consumer has very little regard in the minds of many Americans,” she added. Ta.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that the celebration of Thompson's murder is just a glimpse of “America's extraordinary moment.”
In the world of entertainment, there is no better situation.
At ABC, for example, the supposedly eccentric Jimmy Kimmel enjoyed receiving messages from friends and staff saying they were “obsessed” with the “handsome CEO killer.” Amid bursts of laughter, Kimmel read aloud the following humorous passage: I'm going to be a prison bride. ”
Thompson's two sons buried their father on December 9th.
Beckett Adams is program director at the National Journalism Center.
