While many social media users have had no issue posting photo after photo of accused UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione, the New York Times apparently grappled with the question of publishing the 26-year-old’s likeness.
According to a report by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein, senior editors at the New York Times sent messages to staff over the platform Slack asking them to “dial back” photographs of Mangione’s face.
Klippenstein, a former investigative reporter for the Intercept, published allegedly leaked messages in which a NYT photo editor shared “updated guidance” on the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The messages date from last Tuesday, December 10, a day after Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
“We’ve had Mangione leading the site overnight (and the pic is very strong), but as more details have emerged, his profile matches one of a mass shooter more closely than anything else (mental health questions, shocking crime, manifesto, etc. etc.),” the photo editor said in the messages. “The news value and public service of showing his face are diminishing, compared with concerns of amplifying the crime and inspiring others — something we avoid with mass shooters in particular.”
The messages also indicated that an NYT reporter covering Thompson’s murder was asked not to publish the shooter’s manifesto by a law enforcement source. Klippenstein published a manifesto he claimed was authentic, which was later verified by the Daily Beast and referenced by Democracy Now.
The NYT has not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s request for comment.
After Manigone’s arraignment last week, the NYT published an image by independent photographer Rachel Wisniewski of the accused Ivy League graduate staring back at reporters as he walked into court. In later coverage, only Mangione’s back was visible.
Klippenstein opined on his Substack that the paper’s apparent decision to withhold photographs of Mangione’s face and manifesto meant the publication had “appointed itself an enforcer of public safety.” Combined with abiding by alleged law enforcement requests not to publish Mangione’s manifesto, limiting photos of Mangione’s face “shapes the narrative in subtle ways that can be misleading,” Klippenstein argued.
Klippenstein has not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s request for comment.
Some publications have avoided publishing mugshots of accused individuals for years due to ethical concerns. Smaller outlets often use slideshows of mug shots to generate web traffic and advertising revenue, but in 2020, that began to change in journalism, according to the Marshall Project, which does not publish mugshots at all. Other small publications like the New Haven Independent omit mugshots from their reporting.
In 2020, Johnny Perez, director of US Prisons Programs for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, told Poynter and the Marshall Project that publishing mugshots “creates this situation where you’re criminalizing folks before they’re convicted of any crime.” Mostly, the practice of publishing mugshots has the potential to perpetuate stereotypes against people of color and “undermin[e] the presumption of innocence,” Perez said.
The practice of including mug shots is not governed by journalistic ethics standards like those set forth by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). However, SPJ ethics do require that journalists “balance the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort” and “avoid pandering to lurid curiosity, even if others do.”
It’s unclear from the NYT’s online ethical handbook whether the publication has a policy for photos of individuals charged with high-profile crimes; however, the paper did publish Donald Trump’s mug shot in August 2023.
Images of Mangione are easily discoverable on the social media pages of relevant law enforcement agencies. Hyperallergic’s request to use these images from Pennsylvania State Police headquarters was approved within half an hour.
