Liberal writer tries to justify CEO’s killing: ‘And people wonder why we want these executives dead’

A prominent liberal journalist used the assassination of a health-insurance CEO to say that such officials should be killed.

Taylor Lorenz, a podcaster for Vox Media, spent much of Wednesday on Bluesky saying health-insurance providers are themselves killers also.

She reposted a story about Blue Cross Blue Shield limiting coverage for anesthesia.

“And people wonder why we want these executives dead,” she replied.

Ms. Lorenz said this just a few hours after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot in midtown Manhattan in an obviously targeted hit, though the killer and his motive were unknown Wednesday evening,

Many of her other Bluesky posts Wednesday were variously fleshed out moral justifications for wanting these executives dead, including calling them murderers.

“People have very justified hatred toward insurance company CEOs because these executives are responsible for an unfathomable amount of death and suffering. As someone against death and suffering, I think it’s good to call out this broken system and the ppl in power who enable it,” she wrote.

Ms. Lorenz also accused “these insurance company CEOs” of “ruthlessly murdering thousands of innocent Americans by denying coverage.”

She mentioned, without disapproval, that her group chats included a celebratory image “CEO down.”

Before Vox Ms. Lorenz’s previous journalistic stints including being a technology reporter for the New York Times and a columnist for the Washington Post.

Her reposts Wednesday included other people saying things like:

• “Every day companies like this look millions of suffering, injured, sick and dying people directly in the eye and tell them to go f—- their mother.”

• “An insurance payment denial has the effect of making the patient uninsured. Roughly 50,000 Americans die every year because they have no health insurance. Marxists call this ’social murder.’”

• “hypothetically, would it be considered an actionable threat to start emailing other insurance CEOs a simple ’you’re next’? completely unrelated to current events btw.”

• “Force, when used by the people, is called ’violence’ and ’terror.’ When used by the powerful, it is called ’law enforcement’ and ’policy.’”