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CV NEWS FEED // A Free Press journalist recently decried treating the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson “as though it were the emotionally cathartic climax of a John Wick movie.”
Thompson was murdered in what appears to be cold blood Dec. 4, Kat Rosenfield wrote in the Free Press. The ammunition had the insurance terms “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” written on them, leading many to believe it was an assassination.
The statement Paulette Thompson, Brian’s wife, made after his death seemed to support these suspicions. She told NBC News, “There had been some threats. Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him.”
Rosenfield expressed concern over the public reaction to the murder of the father of two. Many people, including journalists and professors, appeared to celebrate the death as if it were an act of poetic justice.
Columbia University professor Anthony Zenkus, a self-described “anti-violence trauma expert,” commented on the death on his X account in multiple posts.
On Dec. 4, he wrote, “Today, we mourn the death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, gunned down…. wait, I’m sorry – today we mourn the deaths of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires.”
He doubled down on this sentiment in later posts.
“The working class is under no obligation to mourn the deaths of those who are actively trying to kill them,” he wrote Dec. 5.
In a Dec. 6 post he continued.
“Murdering someone publicly in cold blood in broad daylight is never okay,” he wrote. “Best we kill them by denying or delaying their claim for life-saving medical treatment so their families can watch them wither away till they die slowly and in severe and excruciating pain.”
But Thompson’s death was not a Hollywood-produced fictional story, Rosenfield wrote. It was real life, and a man died.
“The people celebrating Brian Thompson’s murder by turning him into an avatar for everything wrong with the American healthcare system remind me of nothing so much as Hollywood screenwriters, cunningly manipulating an audience into cheering on unforgivable acts of fictional violence,” Rosenfield continued.
On Dec. 6, Catholic professor Anthony Esolen, who teaches at Thales College, warned against applauding the murder.
“Anyone cheering the assassination of United Health Care’s CEO is a moral monster,” Esolen wrote on his X account. “It is a deadly sin; and I wonder why those who cheer do not tremble to consider that God may say to them, ‘THY will be done.’ With what measure ye measure, so shall it be measured out to you.”
