The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson continues to dominate the headlines. In the wake of the horrific shooting, the media have taken the left’s cue and begun to provide coverage that “bothsides” and normalizes murder.
Watch as CBS’s “Eye on America”, under the guise of nuance, amplifies voices that justify acts of terror. Below is the report in its entirety, as aired on the CBS Evening News on Wednesday, December 11th, 2024 (click “expand” to view transcript):
CBS EVENING NEWS
12/11/24
6:51 PM
NORAH O’DONNELL: The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is prompting a polarized response, especially online. In tonight's "Eye on America," we look into the outpouring of anger, not directed at the shooter, but at the health insurance industry. Here is CBS's Mark Strassmann.
SOCIAL MEDIA USER: It's very hard for me to be empathetic.
MARK STRASSMANN: Free-floating outrage fuels this American moment.
SOCIAL MEDIA USER: They are wolves who want to kill you for money.
STRASSMANN: A targeted killing in midtown Manhattan. A hooded gunman. And thousands of online posts like "He's a hero" overwhelmingly side with a shooter.
SOCIAL MEDIA USER: This guy is bringing the country together.
STRASSMANN: In New York City, a hooded shooter look-alike contest brought cheap laughs. [Laughter] When shooting suspect Luigi Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania, online hot takes doubled down.
SOCIAL MEDIA USER: Which one of you McDonald's employees ratted that guy out?
STRASSMANN: The web's new hot sellers: “Free Luigi” shirts, “Deny, Defend, Depose” coffee mugs- delivery before Christmas. Seemingly forgotten: Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthcare CEO, murdered in cold blood. The 50-year-old husband and father of two sons was buried on Monday. But online voices see him only as the face of a half trillion dollar health conglomerate. In their eyes, the obstacle to affordable health care.
To many of these critics, it’s a business model built on refusing to pay for services. In 2023, UnitedHealthcare denied roughly 33% of all claims, the highest rate in the industry. The overall industry rate, 19%.
YOLANDA WILSON: I understand the kind of cultural wash, the response that has kind of washed over a large segment of the population.
STRASSMANN: Yolanda Wilson is a health care ethicist. In January, she needed a hysterectomy. This letter from UnitedHealthcare denied her claim, two days before her scheduled surgery.
WILSON: I was surprised. It just kind of sent me into turmoil.
STRASSMANN: Were you angry?
WILSON: A little bit.
STRASSMANN: Maybe more than a little bit?
WILSON: Probably more than a little bit.
STRASSMANN: Her surgeon fought for her. The claim was approved. But in a world that’s often black-and-white, her take on the murdered executive has lots of gray.
You don't agree with the shooting.
WILSON: I don't agree with the shooting.
STRASSMANN: When it first happened, you weren't sad?
WILSON: No.
STRASSMANN: Were you sad for his family?
WILSON: Yes.
STRASSMANN: But you were also sad for all the people his company had denied?
WILSON: Yes.
KIM: The decisions are made by multiple people, not just by one person.
STRASSMANN: We heard more nuance from customers at Pickles Deli in downtown St. Louis. Sure, lots of health insurance horror stories, including Kim.
KIM: High premiums, high deductibles.
STRASSMANN: High frustration.
KIM: High frustration.
STRASSMANN: But everyone we talked to here, like Gary Sims, repudiated the killing.
GARY SIMS: I can empathize with the frustration that they may have with the insurance process, but that's no excuse whatsoever to gun that man down.
STRASSMANN: In our recent round of elections, health care costs and companies got scant attention from politicians in both parties.
Now, everyone's talking about it.
SOCIAL MEDIA USER: I don't feel bad for this guy.
STRASSMANN: In voices like that, any hint of compassion for a murdered man and his family, denied. For "Eye on America," Mark Strassmann, in St. Louis.
It is not clear what this report sought to accomplish beyond normalizing murder as a means of protesting against policies or institutions we do not like. Most of the voices featured in this report either celebrated or justified the murder. The report even amplified anger against the MdConald’s employee that identified the shooter and called law enforcement.
The interview with the “medical ethicist” sought to elicit empathy for her, given that UHC denied her procedure. She and Strassman then go into a whole thing about what she was sad or not sad about (the shooting itself). But her procedure was ultimately approved. And she is still allowed to go on, even after this bit of information is disclosed.
There is one single sentence of outright repudiation airing in the report. Everything else is either “nuance” or people on social media cheering elements of the murder.
Based on this report, it is clear what side of the story the media are on: the terrorist’s side. Compassion "denied", indeed.
