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Luigi Mangione, the News Media, and the “Unserious Generation”

Luigi Mangione is portrayed vastly differently in the news versus on social media. Is he an alleged killer, a hero, or a little bit of both?

Luigi Mangione, The News Media
Illustration by Maggie Vanags/Trill Mag

As soon as Luigi Mangione emerged as a person of interest in the murder of a health insurance CEO, the world had its eyes on him. But there has been a wide gap in how traditional media versus social media portrayed Mangione and the shooting.

Luigi Mangione’s face is on birthday cakes, t-shirts, at least one ten-dollar-bill, and all over the news and social media. The 26-year-old faces 20 charges in relation to the fatal shooting of the CEO of one of America’s largest companies.

Whether or not Mangione killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the suspect has become a symbol of class solidarity against the mega-rich.

Americans are realizing just how fed up they are with the health insurance industry and corporations more generally. Disillusioned news consumers have taken to social media to criticize corporate media’s coverage of the killing.

It is not uncommon for the traditional media and social media to cover news stories differently. But with the topic of Luigi Mangione and the murder of Thompson, the contrast was particularly noticeable.

Some TikTok creators accused the mainstream media of covering the story in a way that catered to corporate interests and ignored ordinary people’s reactions. At the same time, many news stories criticized social media for glorifying the violence of the killing.

But many social media users value the internet as a place where they can disagree with widely accepted narratives that appear in the news.

To the news, Luigi Mangione is a suspect in the brutal murder of Brian Thompson, who has been charged with an act of terrorism. To much of social media, Mangione is a hero.

Luigi Mangione: the murder suspect

Most major news outlets tell a straightforward tale of Mangione and the crime he allegedly committed. This version of the story, in which the suspect’s admirers do not play too big of a role, goes something like this:

It was the morning of December 4, the day of UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor conference. A little before 7:00, Thompson was walking toward the New York City hotel that would have hosted his company’s event. Then, someone approached the CEO from behind and fatally shot him.

The killer walked away, biked into Central Park, and disappeared. $60,000 worth of reward money was up for grabs for information about the shooting.

In the following days, details began to emerge suggesting the shooting was premeditated, targeted, and a symbolic message.

The words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” were discovered on pieces of ammunition at the crime scene. In Central Park, police discovered Monopoly money in a backpack that allegedly belonged to the suspect.

On December 9, a worker at a Pennsylvania McDonalds called 911 after noticing the suspect in the restaurant. Police took Mangione in for questioning and later arrested him. Mangione was allegedly carrying items that tied him to the crime: a gun, a silencer, the same fake ID recently used to check in to a New York City hostel, and what seemed to be a manifesto.

Mangione was held in a Pennsylvania prison before being transported to face charges in New York. On December 19, back in the city where the killing occurred, authorities gave the suspect an unusually dramatic arrival.

Four days later, Mangione pleaded not guilty to charges related to the killing.

Mangione had already gained a fan base. Outside the New York courthouse, supporters held up signs and chanted, “Free Luigi.”

luigi mangione social media versus news
Credit: Shutterstock/Andrey_Popov, The New York Times, TikTok/Apple User545585. (Credit: Alicia Hamm)

Mangione’s fans in the news

Some news organizations acknowledged that Mangione has fans and that Thompson’s death caused a widespread release of anger at health insurance companies, more so than sympathy for the deceased CEO.

This collective frustration is nothing new: The inner workings of health insurance are notoriously hard to understand. Insurance plans can cost hundreds of dollars a month, yet companies seem to deny claims left and right. Meanwhile, the CEOs make millions of dollars per year.

Thompson, whose recent annual salary was close to $10 million, was one of them. Some people found his death hard to sympathize with. He became a punching bag for people’s anger.

Articles published in The New York Times and the New York Post said the admiration for Mangione and applauding of Thompson’s death is out of hand.

In an article titled “Objectifying the Accused,” Vanessa Friedman wrote that a crime that appeared to stand up to an unfair system, combined with the tendency to equate attractiveness with innocence, made Mangione an immediate hero — a phenomenon that surged because of social media.

“In all the hoo-ha over hotness,” Friedman wrote, “what gets lost is the violence, as well as the victims.”

A more scathing article by Rikki Schlott pinned the blame for the Luigi Mangione phenomenon on “leftist women.”

Mangione is a good-looking alleged killer in a crime that aligns with this group’s politics, Schlott wrote. The combination created a “fit of sexual mass hysteria.”

But left-wing women are not the only ones admiring Mangione, whose ideas seem uncategorized into “left” or “right” politics.

Luigi Mangione: the social media star

While major news organizations often focus on Mangione as a suspect and express disapproval of his supporters, social media treats him as a celebrity. Creators and commenters sometimes ignore the charges Mangione faces altogether.

Much of the online Luigi Mangione obsession centers around the suspect’s appearance, but some content delves a bit deeper.

Luigi lookalikes

Before authorities found any persons of interest, images of the unknown suspect went viral because of the person’s looks. Two days after the killing, there was a CEO shooter lookalike contest in New York City.

Early photos of the suspect also led to some humorous content on social media.

In a TikTok video, @goobigubbi joked about his appearance being similar to that of the suspect. The creator dressed like the suspected shooter and imitated their facial expressions — much to his mom’s chagrin.

The top comments under the video read, “Oh you murdered this look,” and “That’s a killer outfit.” Another commenter wrote, “We are such an unserious generation, I love it.”

Nick Ross, another TikToker who looked similar to the suspect, posted a lighthearted video in which he denied responsibility for Thompson’s death and demonstrated how his features did not match the suspect’s face.

“Quick update, I didn’t kill that CEO,” Ross said in the video, posted one day after the killing. “I’ve been walking around New York today and people are looking at me like I have a secret. I don’t have a secret. I can’t really ride a bike.”

“Hot assassin”

Once Mangione became a suspect in the killing, the internet exploded. It wasn’t long before a slew of admiring posts and thirst traps took over social media. Creators dug up old photos of Mangione and combined them with new footage of the suspect.

When Mangione arrived in New York for his court appearance, social media was quick to react to new images. People online fawned over the suspect’s and his lawyer’s matching red sweaters. They joked about Mangione’s confident demeanor and fawned over his voice when he spoke into a microphone to enter his plea of “not guilty.”

One creator even used a photo of the suspect in the courtroom to imply that Mangione was too adorable to have committed the crime.

But many people on social media took issue with courtroom sketches of Mangione, especially an illustration by courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg. Creators and commenters accused the artists of representing Mangione inaccurately. One creator wondered if the depictions of the suspect were an effort by the mainstream media to “gaslight” viewers.

TikTok artist Anna Grace created her own illustration of Mangione “since the courtroom artists clearly just don’t get it.” The video received close to 200,000 likes.

Memes and everything unserious

In what might be among the most chaotic jokes about the killing, a TikToker drew the assassination scene on a crab shell, with a festive twist.

“This IS what I pay my wifi bill for,” one commenter wrote.

Many of the memes inspired by the shooting went viral and received millions of likes.

The day after Mangione was caught in a McDonalds, TikToker Max Evasion posted a video of himself dancing in a McDonalds. The creator was dressed like the suspect. He held a prop that looked like the gun that had killed Thompson.

@maxevasi0n

Luigi Mangione moments before his arrest

♬ original sound – Max Evasion

The video, which commenters pointed out was risky to post, earned over one million likes.

Other jokes came from the fact that Mangione shares his first name with a Super Mario Bros. character.

In a viral video, TikToker @yallknowdre said, “If your name is Mario and you just so happen to be a defense attorney, you have the opportunity to do one of the greatest things we have ever seen in life.”

Mario and Luigi, of course, are two well-known characters in the Super Mario Bros. universe.

All jokes aside

A fair share of social media content about Mangione has been more serious. Many creators analyzed the case, offered their opinions about the killing, and put forward conspiracy theories.

While a lot of the content and comments about Mangione consist of people obsessing over the suspect’s appearance, social media creator Sky Fisher said on TikTok that the suspect’s looks are relevant and may not be a coincidence.

Fisher said in a video that the killing of Thompson already appealed to many people because of their adverse experiences with health insurance companies. Then, authorities revealed a suspect whom people saw as attractive. These factors combined to give Mangione a cult following.

Fisher said in her video that she believes Mangione was not acting alone and that he was “the guy that would be in front of everyone because [the larger group] knew he would be palatable to the public.”

Fisher acknowledged that this was a conspiracy theory, but other creators have shared similar ideas. One TikToker, @leo_loses_it, theorized in a video that someone may have blackmailed Mangione into taking the blame for Thompson’s death.

The creator said it was suspicious that the killer was “so experienced with his weaponry” and “smoothly carried out his crime, but was all of a sudden caught in a McDonalds with an abundance of clear and damning evidence against him.”

Soogia, a social media creator, agreed that the shooter’s skill level was inconsistent with how easily the suspect was discovered.

“I don’t believe for a second that [Mangione] just got caught,” Soogia said in her video. “I believe that this guy made a very conscious choice to get caught.”

Another TikTok video, posted two days before Mangione appeared in the Pennsylvania McDonalds, delved into inconsistencies in the shooter’s behavior.

@davidbetras0

I’m no conspiracy theorist, but that murderer knew where the cameras were when he shot that man. So we never actually got to see the actual shooters face and he didn’t run from the scene. He was very cold and calculating. He obviously knew his schedule he walked away from the scene went into Central Park, where there would be no cameras. Now he’s cautious and all of that but somehow he walks into a Starbucks and stays in a hostel. I don’t know. Maybe I’m crazy but I think there’s more to the story.

♬ original sound – David Betras

Everything about the killing seemed perfectly planned, said attorney David Betras in his video. The shooter knew Thompson’s schedule, knew how to avoid showing their face to surveillance cameras while committing the crime, and was adept at handling a gun.

The shooter was so cautious, Betras said, yet sloppy enough to show their face to security cameras in a hostel and a Starbucks.

Betras’s theory, which he admitted was a conspiracy theory, was that the true killer hired someone else to wear matching clothing and show his face to security cameras in an effort to throw the police off.

“I’m just saying, I think there’s a little more to the story than what we’re being told,” Betras said to end his video. “It’s just my 39 years of experience talking.”

Many of these creators admitted there was no evidence supporting their ideas. But their theories emerged from loose ends and questions that remained unanswered by the media and the police.

Why is a suspected killer a hero?

Whether or not Mangione killed Thompson, the suspect represents Americans’ growing resentment of wealthy corporations that profit from people’s pain. Despite Mangione’s wealthy family background, he has become the face of the common person’s struggle: a struggle that goes beyond politics.

On social media, many people are unbothered by the fact that Mangione may be a murderer. They relate to the symbolism of killing a CEO whose net worth was over $40 million and whose annual salary was 168 times that of the average American.

For a long time, dissatisfied health insurance policyholders have accused companies of prioritizing profit over people’s health.

Health insurance companies often deny claims for reasons that defy basic logic, as a PBS article said. Denials are a “handy way” for companies to keep their revenue high, but denied claims can have dire effects on people’s health and finances.

PBS said denials have increased in recent years. Countless Americans in need of healthcare share the common experience of being unjustly “forced to pay out-of-pocket or, faced with that prospect, forgoing needed medical help.”

Some creators also expressed anger that authorities go above and beyond to catch killers of wealthy people in positions of power, but when ordinary people are the victims, those cases rarely receive as much care.

“Just a reminder that if you were shot in the middle of New York City, you would not have a manhunt scale this large,” @chpmukyay said on TikTok. “The big difference between them and you? Their wallet size.”

People have finally had enough of the unfairness, TikTok creator @blackbeltbabe said in a video.

@blackbeltbabe

Breaking News: Luigi Mangione, suspect in CEO’s killing, charged with 1st-degree murder as an act of terrorism.

♬ original sound – Blackbeltbabe

“When someone shoots a CEO, it’s terrorism. When CEOs take advantage of us and exploit us, it’s good business practices,” the creator said, “and this is the country that we live in.”

Written By

I am a junior majoring in journalism and minoring in music performance at Boston University. My other interests include photography and reading books. I am originally from New Jersey.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Nunya

    January 17, 2025 at 10:49 am

    Hotness = innocence? LOL. They’re pretty solid on the fact that he is guilty of at least collusion. News flash = they don’t care. Not because of his looks, but because of ALL of it. ALL of it. Corruption in corporations, the health care crisis in the US, the duality of the media (do we report because the kid brings in the numbers? Or we do what CEOs want us to do?), the fact that even a rich, young, white boy is bothered enough by it to go to these lengths, and oh yeah. He’s hot. Honestly, those who want it couldn’t have picked a better option for revolution leader.

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