Following the tragic shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan, former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz published a series of social media posts that ignited controversy. Lorenz appeared to celebrate Thompson's death and implied that other insurance executives should be targeted.
Hours after the incident, Lorenz posted on Bluesky, "And people wonder why we want these executives dead," linking the sentiment to a report about Blue Cross Blue Shield's altered anesthesia coverage policies. She also shared an image of Blue Cross Blue Shield CEO Kim Keck alongside a similar article on both Bluesky and X (formerly Twitter).
Lorenz later attempted to justify her posts, arguing that there's "very justified hatred" towards insurance CEOs due to the "amount of death and suffering" she alleges they cause. She stated, "People have very justified hatred toward insurance company CEOs because these executives are responsible for an unfathomable amount of death and suffering… I think it’s good to call out this broken system and the ppl in power who enable it."
Furthermore, Lorenz amplified other users' posts attacking Thompson and seemingly justifying his death by implying he was responsible for deaths due to inadequate health insurance coverage. Examples of the shared posts include sentiments such as, "He will be shown the same empathy he showed for others every single day," and "My insurance will neither cover monoclonal antibodies to prevent COVID or sufficient Paxlovid to treat COVID. They have no problem with my suffering or possible death. Murder is wrong, no matter how it's done." She also shared posts from other left-leaning journalists who criticized the healthcare system.
In response to inquiries from Fox News Digital, Lorenz clarified her initial post by saying it used the "royal we" and was merely reflecting public sentiment. However, she maintained her stance, stating, "Healthcare executives absolutely want people dead as long as it helps their bottom line… My sympathies are with the innocent people who have died or suffered after being denied coverage by greedy insurance companies." Regarding her post about Keck, Lorenz said her "motivation" was "to show who was behind this type of decision." She later added to her post about Keck, advocating for peaceful letter-writing campaigns to insurance CEOs and promoting universal healthcare.
Lorenz, who left The Washington Post in October and launched her own Substack, has been involved in several online controversies. This latest incident adds to her history of provocative social media activity and public pronouncements.
