The New York City government issues press passes so real reporters can cross real police and fire lines to gather the news on behalf of the public. The purpose of these passes, with the holder’s photo and name and outlet, is to facilitate the free and independent news media carrying out its constitutionally-protected rights to publish and broadcast what it chooses without government interference.
But giving press passes to the death cult groupies of Luigi Mangione, fans who call him a hero and celebrate the sidewalk assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is not what this is supposed to be.
Their rantings, like Ashley Rojas saying, “f--k Brian Thompson. I don’t give a flying f--k he died” and Lena Weissbrot saying, “his children are better off without him. They need to learn to not be like their dad. And enjoy the blood money, kids,” are all certainly protected free speech (and very poor taste), but that’s not the purpose of the city-issued press passes.
Do these kooks need to be crossing police and fire lines to produce their atrocious gibberish? No, the passes are for working pros like Kerry Burke of the Daily News, the best legman in the city, chasing down important stories on the streets of New York, from fires to crimes to crashes.
The handling of the passes used to be done by the NYPD for the traditional press like The News and our competitors at the Times and Post and broadcasters and web-based organizations. But that was changed by the City Council during Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure, moving it to the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. Either under Mayor Eric Adams or Mayor Mamdani the change resulted in this nonsense of the Luigi Mangione devotees having the credentials. Both Adams and Mamdani agree that the Mangionistas should not have gotten the passes.
City Hall cannot have viewpoint discrimination, favoring some in the press over others, like the Trump administration did in punishing the Associated Press for continuing to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Mexico and not the Trump-named Gulf of America.
And we don’t want any government deciding what is journalism. But there needs to be some standards, otherwise why not just issue the press cards to all 8 million New Yorkers, which defeats the purpose of the passes for those who actually need access to otherwise restricted areas, balancing public safety with public information.
There should be no ideological nor political litmus test or filter on who can get a press pass, but there should be some basic dignity and common sense.
There is no barrier to being a journalist, from printing and handing out leaflets in the olden days to today’s creating a Substack account; it is not a licensed profession like law or medicine or engineering or accounting, but there is no reason to confer a sense of “official” legitimacy on individuals who have not demonstrated an actual purpose in needing to cross police and fire lines.
We don’t know who made this mess, but this mayor should seek a way to remedy it while keeping in mind his limitations under the First Amendment.