Corrupt Media Obsess Over Luigi Mangione After Memory Holing Trump’s Would-Be Assassins
By: Beth Brelje December 13, 20241/2
The media builds a mystique around an alleged murderer while ignoring two gunmen who targeted a presidential candidate.
The media has raised the curiosity bar, and the new measure is Luigi Mangione, the accused assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Legacy media has shown a rare burst of old-fashioned reporting chops, digging deep into the life of Luigi Mangione, 26, who grew up in an $800,000 Towson, Maryland, home, had a wealthy real estate mogul grandfather, and suffered from back pain made worse after he went surfing in Hawaii and again when he slipped on a piece of paper, according to an ABC News report. Mangione was the 2016 valedictorian at the Gilman School in Baltimore, a private boys’ school with current tuition of nearly $38,000. The details are plentiful and the digging continues.
Rich kids are fascinating. Murder is fascinating. Manhunts are fascinating. Check, check, check. It’s like catnip to readers. And bonus, Luigi Mangione is, well of course we can’t say it, but folks have noticed: he happens to be good looking. And something about health insurance? His platform is not super clear. But health insurance is important, and way too expensive. The all-knowing media can fill in the gaps on that issue.
Mentally unstable media pieces popped up, like The Atlantic’s “This Is How Political Violence Goes Mainstream: The UnitedHealthcare shooting marks a new moment of normie extremism,” which describes Mangione as an average guy and argues, “The killing demonstrates how mainstream political violence is becoming.”Business Insider published a sympathetic, 1,500-word background on his life that talks about how he once started a book club, and how, friends say, even if he is found guilty, Mangione is a nice guy and they would be comfortable alone in a room with him.
You’ll need mouthwash if you read this headline from The Guardian out loud: “Luigi Mangione is the median American voter: He’s a highly educated, heterodox, politically homeless moderate – and that fact should terrify us all.”
Yuck. The media is building a mystique around an alleged murderer because he meets the magic media formula for a good story.
What is a good story?One that is easy to write, guaranteed to get clicks, and will distract readers from important news that might affect their lives. It is a story that promises to make you look here, not there.
With the media’s new bar,the importance of all shootings could be measured on a scale from Thomas Crooks (Forget this happened) to Luigi Mangione (Made-for-TV movie potential).
Who is Thomas Crooks? He should be a household name, but legacy media was not so interested in him. Crooks was the rooftop sniper who shot Donald Trump in the head at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally on July 13. Crooks killed attendee Corey Comperatore and injured several others before he was shot and killed by the Secret Service on the scene. If not for a divinely timed turn of the head, Trump might have been killed.
Why is the media disinterested in the motivebehind the attempted assassination of a then-presidential candidate and now president-elect?Should we have a national conversation about what happened there? Nah. That boy was probably just touched in the head. That’s all you need to know. Move on folks, nothing to see here.
https://thefederalist.com/2024/12/13/corrupt-media-obsess-over-luigi-mangione-after-memory-holing-trumps-would-be-assassins