Why I Published the Shooter Manifesto

VIDEO: watch me defend my decision to publish suspect Luigi Mangione's manifesto

Today I joined Saagar Enjeti and Ryan Grim of Breaking Points to discuss my decision to publish suspected gunman Luigi Mangione’s 262-word manifesto (minifesto?) During the interview, which you can watch above, I respond for the first time to the accusation that my decision risks inspiring copycat killers — a charge I take about as seriously as the discredited belief that violent video games inspire school shootings.

The notion that reading a shooter’s statement will cause people to snap to attention and become homicidal maniacs, like some kind of Manchurian Agent trigger word, is media paternalism at its worst. (Somehow this phenomenon does not apply to members of the media, who happily circulated copies of the manifesto among themselves.) More importantly, the news media is not a public safety organization. The fact that it’s increasingly behaving like one is alarming. The First Amendment doesn’t have an exemption for speech that might inspire bad things, nor should it.

As I explain in the interview, though, I think a lot of this talk about copycat killers is a smokescreen obscuring the real reason these outlets didn’t publish the manifesto. As a friend at NBC explained, they did not want to antagonize their law enforcement sources who had provided them access to the manifesto on the condition that it not be published. This kind of source capture — where journalists defer to the officials on whom they depend for access and exclusives — is a problem endemic to major media. Under this model of journalism, the reporter gets their scoop and the source maintains control of the narrative. Everyone wins except the public, which has no choice but to rely on the journalist’s paraphrase of the underlying document. I call this Trust Me journalism.

Fortunately, a better form of journalism is possible, one based on sources that don’t place outrageous conditions of self-censorship on every scoop. Please help us show the country that more honest journalism is viable by becoming a paid subscriber (or gifting one).