CNN takes heat for ‘journalistic malfeasance' after airing Taylor Lorenz fawning over Luigi Mangione
Media watchdogs are in disbelief that CNN offered a platform to ex-Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz to fawn over alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO murderer Luigi Mangione.
CNN on Sunday night aired a special "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper," dubbed "MisinfoNation: Extreme America," which focused on the rise of extremism across the nation. Host Donie O'Sullivan largely focused on far-right figures but lumped in supporters of Mangione, who has emerged as a folk hero among the far-left after he was arrested for the murder of Brian Thompson, with some viewing it as retribution for the health nsurance industry.
During the primetime special, O'Sullivan interviewed Lorenz, who emerged as one of Mangione's most outspoken supporters on the heels of Thompson being gunned down in New York City. Lorenz, who had expressed "joy" that the brutal murder brought attention to issues plaguing the healthcare industry, defended her stance.
"It's hilarious to see these millionaire media pundits on TV clutching their pearls about someone stanning a murderer when this is the United States of America, as if we don't lionize criminals," Lorenz told O'Sullivan.
"As if we don't stan murderers of all sorts. And we give them Netflix shows. There's a huge disconnect between the narratives and angles a certain mainstream media pushes and what the American public feels, and you see that in moments like this," Lorenz continued before touting an audience boost for her Substack publication due to her sympathetic writings about Mangione.
Lorenz then tried to explain why the alleged murder appeals to women.
"Here's this man who's a revolutionary, who's famous, who's handsome, who's young, who's smart, he's a person who seems like he's this morally good man, which is hard to find," Lorenz said, prompting laughter from the CNN reporter.
Fox News contributor Joe Concha was in disbelief that the segment aired on CNN.
"The executives who greenlit this idea to give a lunatic like Taylor Lorenz a platform in primetime should be fired," Concha told Fox News Digital.
"As should the host who nodded along, and laughed in agreement when she complimented a cold-blooded murderer and coward like Luigi Mangione," Concha continued. "And the fact that he's getting any praise for this, and the fact that CNN platformed somebody who appears to support him, is journalistic malfeasance."
Heritage Foundation Media Fellow Tim Young is no fan of Mangione, Lorenz or CNN, blasting them each as "morally repugnant."
"It would make sense that a morally repugnant person would support another morally repugnant person. It also makes sense that a morally repugnant network would support not only Lorenz, but air her opinion that Mangione is morally good," Young told Fox News Digital.
"This is the modern left -- if they disagree with your opinion, they want you eliminated from society by any means necessary," Young continued. "As much as I and other conservative critics of media and the left dislike opinions and actions, I could never imagine wishing physical harm on them. It's low, it's disgusting, and it has no place in American society."
NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck said CNN should consider this "special mission accomplished in making clear that, deep down, it still has a deep loathing for large parts of the country" and will stop at nothing to liken them to actual sources of genuine hate.
"O'Sullivan gave away the game concerning his hate-filled documentary by platforming Lorenz and offering zero pushback to her dangerous slippery slope of giddily expressing the hots for an alleged murderer because the target was someone she loathed," Houck told Fox News Digital.
"O'Sullivan never mentioned the two assassination attempts on President Trump's life, the 2017 shooting of congressional Republicans, or the spread of antisemitism in America thanks to college campuses to name a few," Houck continued. "Instead, he used Lorenz to give a smile to murder as a way of justifying hate if it fits the left's agenda."
In 2022, Lorenz revealed the identity of the previously anonymous woman behind the popular Libs of TikTok Twitter account. She also appeared at the home of one of Libs of TikTok's relatives and has been criticized for allegedly reaching out to teenagers without consent from their parents in order to cover social media influencers.
"Now that we see that Lorenz views a murderer as moral, one can easily conclude exactly what her motivations were in doxxing anonymous conservatives and their families," Young said.
Reached for comment, Lorenz claimed she was actually concerned about the growth of the "Free Luigi" movement and violent online rhetoric.
"I do think it's really concerning that more people are essentially participating in these movements, but also just like casually comfortable with really violent kind of rhetoric. And obviously, our system is violent...but in normal, healthy democracies, you don't generally see people talking, sort of celebrating this kind of violence," Lorenz told Fox News Digital.
She added, "This Luigi movement is sort of indicative of some of that cynicism where you're seeing people that are just really angry and upset with the system."
Lorenz also addressed criticism on social media.
"I didn't even 'praise' him I said that there are millions of Americans who rightfully view our healthcare system as barbaric and have made him into a hero. I even stipulated that we don't know his true ideology yet bc he hasn't spoken," she wrote on X.
Thompson, a 50-year-old husband and father of two from Minnesota, was at a New York City hotel for an investor conference when he was gunned down from behind on the sidewalk last December. Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the case against Mangione.
Mangione faces numerous state and federal charges, including murder in the first degree "in furtherance of an act of terrorism." He has pleaded not guilty to state charges but has not yet entered a plea for federal charges.
DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall believes the Lorenz interview is "more evidence that CNN is struggling to make responsible journalistic decisions" after shedding viewers in recent years.
"Addressing the confusing cultural support for Mangione is one thing, but allowing Lorenz to drone on about him being a 'morally good man' is quite another. It just shouldn't be that hard for CNN or any news organization to draw moral boundaries about a news story that involved a murder," McCall told Fox News Digital.
"Regardless of what rational people think about the healthcare industry, promoting a relativistic interpretation of a cold-blooded murder is quite out of line," McCall continued. "Functioning civilizations have to be able to settle things through debate, and to suggest that Mangione was somehow just taking on the system is morally vacuous and disturbing."
CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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