Please forgive the headline — it isn't meant to make light of a political assassination, but to shine a light on the mainstream media outlets that keep doing exactly that.
The latest is a report from Tuesday's edition of the UK Daily Mail, which, when it isn't semi-glorifying political assassins, is usually the cheekiest and most entertaining tabloid in a country full of them.
As you'll recall, Luigi Mangione became something of a progressive folk hero last December, when he assassinated United Health CEO Brian Thompson outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel. I'm perfectly comfortable leaving out the "allegedly" because A) this is an opinion piece, and B) Mangione was found by police a few days later carrying a 3D-printed pistol, a homemade suppressor, multiple fraudulent IDs, a handwritten manifesto/letter criticizing the health-insurance industry, and items matching the shooting scene.
But, hey, the Daily Mail's Sophie Gable implies, forget that Thompson was a 50-year-old husband and father of two teenage boys who worked his way to the top from the University of Iowa — because wait until you read what that scamp Mangione got up to in the months before that thing in New York happened.
According to Gable, Mangione enjoyed "a whirlwind few months in Asia," like so many of us have the freedom and finances to do, "including an encounter with Thai ladyboys."
"Before he became the center of a case that captivated the nation," Gable gushed, "Mangione had backpacked through Asia and befriended American travelers, soccer player Christian Sacchini, and his friend."
Sacchini's friend, who wasn't named in the article, revealed that after Mangione befriended him, he sent a message on WhatsApp revealing the wild nights he had in Thailand.
One message said Mangione was 'beaten up by seven ladyboys,' and lost his phone in a taxi. A 'ladyboy' is the English translation of 'katoey,' which refers to a transgender woman and is often seen as derogatory.
One mustn't sound derogatory toward the male prostitutes who, Mangione texted Sacchini's unnamed friend, "scratched-up" his arm.
But wait. There's more:
In a voice memo to Sacchini's friend, Mangione said that although Vietnam sounded fun, he yearned to slow down from the chaos.
'I think I want to stay here for like maybe a month and just like meditate, just hot spring and do some writing,' the voice memo said, according to The Times.
When Mangione arrived in Tenkawa, a small Japanese village in the Nara Mountains, he sent his new friends another voice note, detailing how beautiful the area was.
'I’m just going to Zen out and do some, do some Buddha,' he told them.
I'm not sure how Zen it is to murder someone in cold blood, but at least Mangione got to first spend some quality time in Tenkawa, contemplating exactly how to do it. "If asked who would be the most impressive and tidiest guest ever in my business record, I’ll answer it’s him," Mangione's Japanese innkeeper said.
The innkeeper also said he never saw Mangione using electronics, just "writing in his journal or reading a book."
He's so dreamy!
"Mangione reportedly was shocked when Sacchini told him how much an MRI scan cost in Thailand," which presumably influenced his decision to assassinate Thompson with multiple shots to the back and leg.
Thompson's name appears twice in Gable's report but with zero details apart from his name and job title.
I'm not arguing that a story about Mangione's excellent adventure needs to include a detailed bio of the man he murdered, but a little context between the man and his murderer might be nice.
Journalistic, even.
But when was the last time you saw a journalist do anything like that?
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