Why Is Traditional Media So Out Of Touch On the Healthcare Assassination Story?

Hint: This is a class warfare story and they work for corporations

As a longtime member of the media, I am mortified at how some of my colleagues have responded to the healthcare assassination story. Or rather, I am mortified by their response to the emotions of the people. The people are acting like the shooter is the embodiment of their righteous anger at the healthcare system and a revolutionary hero who stood up to the man on behalf of the people. I saw a Tiktok that straight up called him a hero.

Left and right, coast to coast people are united in this moment. United by their deep anger at the healthcare system. Most people also see that healthcare CEO with a hole in his head as nothing but an evil billionaire whose execution is karmic justice in a world where health insurance is hell. Someone tweeted “Kill one person you’re a murderer, kill 100,000 and you’re increasing shareholder value.” But on the air, in the studios where they make traditional media, there was shock that people could be so callous. Pearls were clutched as hard as possible. The dead man, in their telling, was an innocent who was just doing his job. They said he was gunned down tragically. (The people at home did not agree with the word “tragically.”)

Kasie Hunt at CNN looked aghast as she read snarky comments on CNN’s site about the killing. One said, “Actually it’s not disturbing at all.” Another said “Are we sure it was a gunshot that killed him? How do we know it wasn’t a pre-existing condition?” Hunt, clutching pearls, called the comments “hateful,” missing the point badly. It looked like a parody of the news.

Rarely has there been a story where there’s such a stark divide between what the people talking to cameras are saying and what the people at home are saying. And it represents a massive problem for traditional media.

I want to explain some of the reasons why traditional media is lost in this moment and how that relates to the larger problems that traditional media is facing.