On Monday morning, a judge overseeing the New York state case against Luigi Mangione for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson ruled that some evidence collected by police cannot be shown to a jury. But the real circus was outside the courthouse, where a handful of Mangione supporters decided to treat their newly acquired press credentials as a platform for unfiltered commentary.
Molly Crane-Newman, a New York Daily News reporter, captured the scene on video: Lena Weissbrot declared that Thompson's children were "better off without him" and that they "needed to learn to not be like their dad." Another attendee, going only by Ashley, helpfully added, "I'm standing on business. Fuck Brian Thompson. I don't give a flying fuck he died." Ordinarily, this would be a minor tabloid footnote. But these particular attendees had press passes hanging from their necks - credentials issued by New York City that allowed them to cross police lines and attend official events.
Local reporters cried foul, and former Mayor Eric Adams chimed in to accuse the current administration of being "reckless" in credentialing journalists. The city defines a member of the press as someone who "gathers and reports the news" through various media, including the Internet. But what separates a reporter from a person who witnessed something and posted about it? Is a Substack essay on equal footing with a reported story? It's a definitional quagmire that could affect newsgathering far beyond the Mangione case.
By the end of the day, Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration announced it was reviewing the press credentialing process. Mamdani later said the three Mangionistas - who run social media accounts under that moniker - should never have been issued passes in the first place. City Hall pointed to Mamdani's comments that the three fans "don't fall within [the] debate" of who should get credentials. Weissbrot appears to have been publishing dispatches from Mangione's hearings since September on a blog called The Bicoastal Beat, though there's no disclosure of her organizing efforts. Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Mangione's lawyer, condemned the statements as "vile and irresponsible."
The incident exposes the increasingly blurry line between journalist, influencer, gadfly, fan, and activist. If everyone can theoretically become "media," credentialing becomes useless - a point underscored by a right-wing anti-vax candidate known as the "Sperminator" who previously obtained a press pass. The situation also reveals fault lines within the Mangione support universe: some backers condemned the comments, and People Over Profit NYC issued a statement denouncing them. Others wondered if Mangione's legal team could seek restraining orders against the group, accusing them of purposely sabotaging the defendant.
Threading the needle is impossible in a case where public participation has been a hallmark of its notoriety. Supporters have sent more than $1.5 million to Mangione's legal defense fund; he is reportedly inundated with letters in jail. Upcoming jury selection will surely ask prospective jurors if they've shared a Luigi meme in the last year and a half. This is the problem with being the internet's favorite defendant: eventually someone will put their foot in their mouth, and you will have to answer for it.