Here Is Legacy Media's Worst Take on the Luigi Mangione Case

After a five-day manhunt, Luigi Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania and charged yesterday with the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Somehow, Mangione was elusive enough to shoot someone in broad daylight, ride a bicycle, and take a bus to Pennsylvania. Yet, he was not smart enough not to walk into a McDonald’s carrying the same (alleged) ghost gun used in the shooting, the same fake ID he had previously flashed, and… a manifesto. Seriously, who carries around a manifesto?

Apparently, a guy who admires the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. The fact that Mangione wasn’t caught in NYC says more about the NYPD than his intelligence, though NYC’s Mayor Adams is inexplicably taking credit for the capture.

I’ve mostly stayed out of this debate because I didn’t want to wade into whether it’s “OK” to murder the CEO of an insurance company. I’ll just say this: I oppose the death penalty, no matter the crimes or how heinous they are. That goes for both the victim and the suspect. Speaking of the suspect—who is, admittedly, a very good-looking guy—he’s been described in countless ways. Personally, he looks to me like Harry Styles playing a young Jimmy Fallon in a TV movie about late-night wars.

The mugshot of Luigi Mangione has been released.

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— Pop Base (@popbase.tv) December 9, 2024 at 6:16 PM

Michael Hobbes nailed it with my favorite take:

The historic day when all the nation’s gay men and straight women cried out in unison: I can fix him

— Michael Hobbes (@michaelhobbes.bsky.social) December 9, 2024 at 7:14 PM

That said, after seeing Mangione’s Goodreads favorites, there’s no fixing this man.

Meanwhile, legacy media’s coverage of this story has been abysmal. Take this for example:

Yet somehow, the worst take wasn’t the concern trolling over protecting billionaires. No, that honor goes to this NBC headline:

Oh, no! Was Mangione obsessed with violent video games? Was he radicalized by Hitman? From NBC:

Luigi Mangione, who was arrested and charged with murder in the shooting death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, once belonged to a group of Ivy League gamers who played assassins, a member of the group told NBC News.

In the game, called “Among Us,” some players are secretly assigned to be killers in space who perform other tasks while trying to avoid suspicion from other players.

Wait, what? He played Among Us? My kids used to play Among Us all the time. With other kids. Are they secretly training to be assassins? Should CEOs be afraid of my kids? JFC. Among Us?!

In mocking legacy media, it’s important to also highlight their glaring failure to cover the likely hate crime that took place the same day, just four miles from where Thompson was shot. Seventeen-year-old Yeremi Colino was murdered, and another victim was stabbed with a screwdriver and remains in stable condition. Their only crime? Allegedly not looking like they spoke English.

The suspects—plural—in that murder are still on the loose. If there’s a manhunt, the media isn’t reporting on it.