I am referring, of course, to the New York Times, who we now know are refusing to print the manifesto of alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione, and refusing to even publish photographs of him.
Internal New York Times messages about its coverage of alleged gunman Luigi Mangione have been leaked to me and the contents are revealing. On Tuesday, management said “the news value and public service of showing his face is diminishing,” instructing staff to “dial back” its use of such photos. It also directed that Luigi’s “manifesto” not be published in the paper.
The directive was heeded. If you visit Times’ front-page story today on the shooter, it features Mangione’s back as he was being marched to his arraignment in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Another Times story today on Mangione’s notebook features a photo of a generic police-tape barricade.
This is media paternalism at its worst, the idea that seeing the shooter’s face too much, or reading his 262-word statement, will necessarily inspire copy-cat assassinations and should therefore be withheld from the public.
There is something profoundly dysfunctional at the New York Times, even more so than the media in general.
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