CEO SHOOTING: Read Luigi's Real Manifesto The Media Is Suppressing

This is a time for everyone in alternative media to stand up and report what the lying corporate media will shade, fudge, trash or bury.

“When the rich rob the poor, it’s called business. When the poor fight back, it’s called violence.”
–Mark Twain

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You can restack this column or take the information here and incorporate into your own post. You don’t need to credit me, I don’t care. Just get the damn information out.

By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy.ink (12/10/24)

There’s a big job for those of us in the alternative media space: Report what the lying corporate media will shade, fudge or trash or bury about the United Healthcare CEO case.

As we have already seen, corporate media is twisting and manipulating the case of Luigi Mangione. In the United States, one is to be considered “innocent until proven guilty”, but selective and biased reporting can poison that presumption and that process is already ramped. As proof, just scroll through the online YouTube comments on any of the videos about the case. Rarely have we seen such a disconnect between what the talking heads are burping out and how the viewers see the story.

It ain’t broken

You will see mention of the ‘broken’ or ‘inefficient’ or ‘inadequate’ American healthcare system. The American medical insurance catastrophe is not ‘broken’. Far from it. It is corrupt and working just as it is designed to do: suck up as much family and government money for private enrichment as possible. It is not about ‘health’ or ‘care’ it is about people like United Healthcare executive Brian Thompson stuffing as much damn money in his bank account as possible while and enriching company investors.

Your sick kid or parent needing long-term care? Forget it.

Every dime they steal — and, yes, that is the right word, steal — is one less dime for providing the appropriate and complete medical care and comfort all Americans deserve.

And because they profit directly off the corruption, don’t expect either political party to do a damn thing. The only thing that wile change anything will come from the ground up.

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Cartoon by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink

Part of the corruption — a huge part — is the corporate media, which makes millions in advertising from the medical insurance companies, massive hospital systems and — of course — Big Pharma.

Mangione’s upcoming trial

Given the corruption and selective self-interest of the hellscape of the American corporate medical industrial complex, media coverage will be inadequate, tilted and lie through omission. This is where Substackers and other alternative media need to step up and report what is not being reported or marginalized. Often the most important piece of information in a NYTimes or WaPo story is found around paragraph 26, long after most people moved on to another story or headline.

Please, forward the news items below. You can restack this column or take the information here and incorporate into your own post. You don’t need to credit me, I don’t care. Just get the damn information out.

And — please — commit to the long run on this story. Keep your readers and neighbors informed about what is really going on during Mangione’s trial because all of our lives and the health and well-being of our families and neighbors are directly threatened by our current greedy, sociopathic corporate medical industrial complex.

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EXCLUSIVE: Luigi's Full Manifesto

By Ken Klippenstein
Ken Klippenstein (12/10/24)

I’ve obtained a copy of suspected killer Luigi Mangione’s manifesto — the real one, not the forgery circulating online. Major media outlets are also in possession of the document but have refused to publish it and not even articulated a reason why. My queries to The New York Times, CNN and ABC to explain their rationale for withholding the manifesto, while gladly quoting from it selectively, have not been answered.

I’ll have more to say on this later — on how unhealthy the media’s drift away from public disclosure is — but for now, here’s the manifesto:

“To the Feds, I'll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn't working with anyone. …

Read the rest

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UnitedHealthcare's Leaked ‘COAP*’ Talking Points To Employees

UHC tells employees to dispute social media criticism, lie about denied claims rate and praise slain CEO

“You can tell they really just want us to shut up and not acknowledge it. Supervisors are afraid to speak up about the corruption for fear of losing our jobs. It’s like we’re being forced to lionize Brian instead of analyze who he was.” — UHC employee, “UnitedHealthcare Tells Employees to 'Shut Up'“ (12/5/24)

By Ken Klippenstein
Ken Klippenstein (12/10/24)

In response to widespread public criticism following the murder of its CEO Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthcare has circulated talking points to its employees that I’ve obtained. The talking points give a sense of the backlash from UnitedHealthcare’s own customers. One section about customers seeking to cancel their plans over the killing instructs employees to counter that “there is no need to change your plan due to this incident.”

Characteristically out-of-touch, the communications guidance directs employees to say that their mission includes “ensuring that everyone we have the privilege to service has access to the health care they need.” Not being able to access care is, of course, the entire reason so many people are furious at the health insurance industry in the first place. The same glib tone is evident throughout the talking points, one of which instructs employees to refer to the late CEO Thompson as “our esteemed colleague” and a “highly respected professional” — descriptions that are quite different than those I’ve heard from the rank-and-file employees I interviewed.

Link to original story below to see other screenshots sent out to UHC employees.

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The guidance makes specific mention of “(social)media reports on claim denial rates,” directing employees to basically say they’re fake news. “The information circulating online about our claims is false,” one talking point reads. “A chart being widely spread on social media is false.” These assertions, however, make no reference to any specific “information,” so it’s impossible to know which social media claims they’re saying are false. I asked UnitedHealthcare’s communications department which specific social media claims they’re referring to (and to comment on the talking points in general), but they did not respond.

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“Thompson took massive pay outs while we at the bottom had to work harder and longer. Meanwhile [UnitedHealth group CEO Andrew]Witty brought in AI to learn from us. So they have the money for AI and massive bonuses, but we’re still using software that is massively behind the industry standard. They’ve been lying to us.”
— UHC employee, “UnitedHealthcare Tells Employees to 'Shut Up'“ (12/5/24)

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Despite all the sunny talk, there’s one type of query employees are told not to engage with under any circumstances. “If you receive a call from anyone in the media, do not engage,” the guidance states. This has been a particular focus of the company, including Andrew Witty, CEO of parent company United Health Group. This past weekend, Witty gave a company address complaining about the “aggressive” coverage, telling employees, “just don’t engage with the media,” as I previously reported.

To give you a sense of how many angry calls the company is getting, in a section on “abusive” calls, the talking points recommend employees turn off their headsets “to prevent incoming calls while you are on break.” I do feel bad for the rank-and-file employees, many of whom express the exact same criticisms of the company’s practices as the general public, based on my interviews with them. As usual, ordinary people are made to take the heat for decisions made in boardrooms. Executives get to go on living in blissful ignorance of the rage the public feels, instead living in a state of pleasant unreality where their late CEO was “esteemed” and “highly respected” by all.

* “COAP”— Cover Our Ass, PUHLEEZE!!

Link to story and other screenshots of directions to UHC employees

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“Resentment for Thompson was widespread at the company, the employee said, citing an internal company announcement about his death that only garnered 28 comments despite being seen by 16,000 employees.”
— “UnitedHealthcare Tells Employees to 'Shut Up'“ (12/5/24)

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Suspect Shouted Outside Court Before Hearing Where He Was Denied Bail

Suspected shooter Luigi Mangione is led into the Blair County Courthouse for an extradition hearing on December 10, 2024 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. (Photo: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

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“The suspect in the shooting death of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, shouted: “This is completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people” on Tuesday before he fought being extradited from Pennsylvania to face murder charges in New York. …

…”Mangione, 26, appeared for the proceeding in handcuffs and an orange prison jumpsuit, and video showed him yelling as police led him into the courthouse. Not all of what he shouted was immediately intelligible.”

— The Guardian, (12/10/24)

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“Brian had killed before, thousands of times, in a premeditated, systematic manner designed around monetary gain. At the moment of social self defense, Brian was literally on his way to a meeting about how he could kill more in a premeditated, systematic manner designed around monetary gain.” — swissarmyknight4306

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Comedian Bill Burr (Appropriately) Roasts Lethal Private Health CEOs & Media Coverage

The Rational National (12/10/24)

10-minute video