New York Times headline calling glorification of Luigi Mangione ‘anti-Israeli’ is fake

A screenshot supposedly showing a New York Times opinion piece with the headline “Why the Glorification of Luigi Mangione is Inherently Anti-Israeli” is circulating on social media. But this has been edited and the news organisation has not published any such article. 

The supposed article appears to have been published on 12 December with the subheading “The shooting of Brian Thompson marks a new era of rage for this country”. 

Luigi Mangione has been charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson in New York on 5 December. 

A spokesperson for the New York Times told Full Fact that it “did not publish this article or headline”. The publication also confirmed this in a post on X on 13 December.

The screenshot appears to be an edited version of an actual New York Times opinion piece with the headline: “What the Glorification of Luigi Mangione Reveals About America”. It was published on 12 December with the same subheading as in the screenshot shared on social media. 

This genuine article is an edited transcript from an episode of the publication’s podcast, ‘The Opinions’, and there’s no reference to Israel in either the episode or the article. 

Mr Mangione’s lawyers reportedly anticipate he will plead not guilty to the murder charge and four others he faces in New York if extradited there, and to gun and ID related charges in Pennsylvania, where he is currently being held. 

This is not the first time we’ve written about edited screenshots purporting to show headlines from news outlets, including: the Guardian, the BBC, the Telegraph, CNN and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. 

Although some claims may seem obviously false, we still think it’s important to fact check them because it may not be clear to everyone that it is untrue. We’ve written about this in more detail on our blog.