The Media Research Center’s huffiness about people not being particularly sad that health insurance executive Brian Thompson was murdered — and, particularly, Taylor Lorenz pointing out that rage against health insurance polices is at least somewhat justified — continued in Jeffrey Lord’s Dec. 7 post:
Let’s start with the obvious. If it’s OK to kill somebody because they are a health care executive and the killer hates health care executives? Then what if somebody out there hates journalists like, say, Lorenz’s former colleagues at the Washington Post? Or television anchors? Football players and other athletes? How about presidents?
To say that this attitude is not just wrong but exceptionally dangerous would be to understate.
[…]At the end of the day there is zero excuse for anyone – anyone, not to mention a media figure with any kind of audience – leaving the impression that killing health care executives is one big no deal and she associates with those crazies who find it justified.
One would look forward to a public retraction and apology from Lorenz. But don’t wait up.
After the alleged killer was arrested, it was time to adjust the narrative. Alex Christy huffed in a Dec. 10 post:
After the alleged murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was caught on Tuesday, MSNBC’s Joy Reid was extra Joy Reid-y on The ReidOut. She gleefully noted that people on the internet are not angry at the murder, and when she welcomed progressive author and radio host Thom Hartmann, wondered how such reactions could be made in the same country that just elected Donald Trump. For his part, Hartmann declared that the reason why America does not have a socialist healthcare system is because of racism.
Reid began by pretending to be shocked that liberal Twitter sleuths are not eager to find lefty assassins, “Something a bit unexpected has happened following the murder… I don’t want to call it glee but, say, not unhappiness. Especially online, where the internet sleuths who often dedicate themselves to tracking down people accused of racist behavior in public places, criminals including January 6th fugitives, and more have actively been refusing to help.”
She then hyped how “Donald Trump Jr., son of our incoming ruler, went on his X/Twitter page and did the patented ‘internet, do your thing,’ post. And the reaction was mostly, ‘yeah, no.’”
Christy served up more right-wing narratives against socialized medicine: “Meanwhile, in socialized healthcare paradises like Canada, the system merely encourages you to euthanize yourself, while in Britain, waiting times continue to break records. Perhaps that is not what Jefferson meant by ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’”
Curtis Houck cheered that his favorite CNN right-winger doesn’t think all targeted killings are equal:
On Monday’s CNN NewsNight (aka the CNN Thunderdome) sunk to a predictable low as, helmed by fill-in host Audie Cornish, the leftists loons argued Daniel Penny was no different than Luigi Mangione, the alleged murderer of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson.
Worse yet, they claimed Penny protecting fellow New York subway riders from Jordan Neely a case of “vigilante action” and exacerbated by, of course, racism. Thankfully, CNN’s Scott Jennings took them to school with a hand-drawn chart that Penny is a “good guy” and Mangione the “bad guy.”
“[L]et me just help you understand,” Jennings began as he introduced a handy chart to Cornish. “If you’re on the American left tonight, here’s my chart. The good guys today — Daniel Penny. The bad guys — Luigi Mangione.”
Christy put on his comedy-cop hat to be angry that it was pointed out that the alleged killer is surprisingly good-looking for a killer:
ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel reported on his Tuesday show that several members of his staff have become infatuated with UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s alleged murderer. During his monologue, Kimmel read several text exchanges between the staff and their friends and family, including ones who promised to bake him cookies and those who desperately wanted to get on the jury.
Kimmel declared that, “So many women and so many men are going nuts over how good-looking this killer is, and there’s a huge wave of horny washing over us right now. It’s like we’re one of the guys you work with says, ‘I had a dream about you last night.’ When it’s the FedEx guy with the big muscles and rolled-up sleeves, you’re like, ‘Oh,’ but if it’s the bald IT guy wearing Crocs with black socks, you’re on the phone with HR, it’s kind of that same dynamic.”
[…]The next time Kimmel goes on one of his rants about how awful Republicans are or uses emotion to make a point about health care policy, just remember his staff is full of people who have fallen head over heels for a cold-blooded murderer, and Kimmel thinks that is funny.
Clay Waters groused that Elon Musk got dragged into it:
The PBS News Hour avoided the nihilist-leftist take of too many media and social media liberals in its Monday evening segment on the capture of a suspect in the murder in Manhattan of UnitedHealthCare chief executive Brian Thompson.
Co-anchor Geoff Bennett strongly condemned the murder — but the interview also took a cheap shot at the Elon Musk-owned social media platform X (formerly Twitter) for the heartless comments, without noting they were coming almost exclusively from left-wing X users (there’s also plenty of left-wing pro-assassination ghoulishness on the “alternate” platform BlueSky: see Taylor Lorenz). That’s quite unlike the News Hour’s treatment of allegedly hateful comments and “disinformation” from right-wing social media, which are dutifully labeled with “extreme right”-type warning labels.
Waters didn’t mention that social media platforms might have better moderation if right-wing activists like his employer (and Musk) hadn’t demonized any reasonable moderation as “censorship,” thus guaranteeing that more extreme views will proliferate. Waters then insisted that you can’t have health insurance that’s both good and reasonably priced:
Indeed, it’s impossible to achieve all three of Bennett’s objectives at once. Better coverage and fewer denials would make care more expensive, while cheaper coverage necessarily means rationing care, either as they do it under socialized medicine, or through health insurance companies, as America does.
If both do the same thing, that means private coverage is not inherently better than socialized care — which seem to shoot down conservatives’ arguments against it.
Nicholas Fondacaro made the arrest the focus of his Dec. 11 hate-watch of “The View”:
For the second time in two different weeks, The View’s Sunny Hostin made comments that were at best indifferent and at worst permissive of extremists assassinating insurance company executives. This time, she opined about how many Americans didn’t trusting the healthcare system, how America was “built on violence,” and how many believe “violence is justified right now” against corporations.
Following the rest of the cast who condemned the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and said violence wasn’t the way to change the healthcare industry, Hostin wasn’t as committed to the nonviolence.
Without a full throated condemnation of what happened, she then proceeded to lay out a reasoning for why so many thought knocking off executives was the way to bring about reform. She even argued that violence was ingrained in the American system and many people were calling for it:
Hostin also made curious comments about her husband’s interactions with insurance companies. She said her husband, who’s a surgeon, “operates on someone even though they don’t have insurance and then has to sue health insurance companies to get paid for the work that he’s been trained his whole life to do.”
Judging by what she said, it appeared as though her husband was trying to bill insurance companies for people who were not their customers.
Did she, though? It sounds like Fondacaro just vindictively wants Hostin’s husband to be screwed out of payment for his hard work as punishment for his having to watch this show.
Tim Graham rehashed all this on his Dec. 11 podcast:
CNN sunk to a new low as NewsNight fill-in host Audie Cornish implied subway “vigilante” Daniel Penny was no different than Luigi Mangione, the alleged murderer of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson. “There you also have a victim who somebody determined did not deserve to continue living,” as if Penny was an assassin. “Tell me which vigilante action is okay.”
Attorney Arthur Aidala objected: “Talk to people who ride the subway every day, because I do all the time. I do all the time. I can’t find anyone who rides the subway who’s unhappy about this verdict.”
CNN analyst Scott Jennings also pushed back, sensibly suggesting that Penny was the good guy, and Mangione was the bad guy. “I’m just telling you what I see out in the world today,” he said.
On ABC’s The View, Whoopi Goldberg was furious that Penny’s team celebrated his win. “I don’t know that seeing them celebrating in a bar made me comfortable, you know? I mean, you killed a guy. The man is dead, and maybe you just — you take the celebration home.” Whoopi decried the verdict as a “failure on the part of the courts.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin lashed out America and questioned the lack of “compassion.” “And so, when you look at that and look at the result of what happened, my question is where is our compassion?! As a society, where is our compassion?!…Where is our compassion as a society?!”
These women have no compassion for terrified subway riders in New York. Last year, Hostin literally attacked them on ABC: “Where was the humanity of anyone that was on that train?! I would have given him money! I would have tried to give him food! I would have tried to help!” As if Sunny the multi-millionaire would feel compelled to ride the subway…
Graham didn’t explain why the only option Penny had was killing a man. Praising someone for killing the “right” person can easily become a slippery slope — there’s no reason why Graham wouldn’t eventually shift that line all the way over to someone who simply disagrees with him and points out his bias and errors (ahem).