When CEOs Kill: It’s Not Murder. It’s Just Business.
Comedian Bill Burr recently asked a sharp question: “Why is there this level of coverage? Somebody gets gunned down in New York every f — — -g day. Now, all of a sudden, all these experts have to weigh in. That’s because of the status. We can’t have white men in suits gettin’ whacked.”
Burr’s observation is as funny as it is tragically on point. When UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed, the media narrative didn’t focus on the systemic failures of the healthcare industry he represented. Instead, it was an elegy for a “visionary leader,” someone supposedly irreplaceable. When social media offered ridicule and sarcasm rather than tea and sympathy, the overpaid, out-of-touch talking heads in the news media barked like junkyard dogs at members of the public whose empathy would not align with a person they considered a Bond villain. Ultimately, it wasn’t a conversation about accountability or justice — it was about protecting the sanctity of a particular type of victim: the white man in a suit.
The disparity in coverage isn’t just about who gets mourned. It’s about what we choose to ignore. Corporate America, aided by a complicit media industrial complex, normalizes a level of deviance so staggering that lives are routinely sacrificed in the name of profits. UnitedHealthcare, Boeing, PG&E, Conagra — the list of companies allegedly responsible for deaths grows longer by the day. And yet, the stories the news media tell about these tragedies almost always absolve the powerful and blame the powerless.
The Bloodstained Bottom Line
Let’s not forget what UnitedHealthcare is: a business built on denying care to maximize profit. Its practices left countless families bankrupt, untreated, and grieving. Yet, when Brian Thompson was killed, the media focused on the personal tragedy of a CEO, not the systemic harm perpetuated under his leadership. Ironically, even the board of directors didn’t miss a beat to fill his empty seat at the conference table. Got empathy? Anyone? Anyone?
The same pattern plays out across industries. Boeing ignored safety warnings about its 737 Max aircraft, resulting in two crashes and 346 lives lost. PG&E’s negligence sparked wildfires that killed dozens and destroyed entire communities. Conagra’s recurring food safety issues continue to jeopardize public health.
These corporations kill in slow motion, the posse never catching the C-suite. Fines, if there are any at all, merely slap the wrists where handcuffs should be. Lawsuits are quietly settled, and the executives at the helm retire with multimillion-dollar packages. This isn’t just deviance — it’s depravity, normalized and excused by a business culture and a news media complex that prioritizes profits over people.
The Great Enabler
If Corporate America is the villain, the media is the minion. Instead of asking hard questions about the systems that produce these tragedies, coverage sanitizes profiles of executives and sensationalizes headlines to obscure true culpability.
Consider the initial reporting on Thompson’s death. CNN and the NYPD erroneously described the suspect as a “light-skinned man,” a detail that conveniently fit a racially ambiguous narrative. The real killer, however, was another white man. The rush to misinform wasn’t accidental — it was emblematic of a media culture more interested in spinning stories than uncovering truth.
Meanwhile, the victims of corporate negligence remain faceless and voiceless. The media rarely dwells on the families destroyed by denied healthcare claims, the passengers lost in preventable crashes, or the communities incinerated by wildfires sparked by negligence. The lives of ordinary people are treated as collateral damage, unworthy of the same attention lavished on the powerful.
A Stark Reminder
The 2024 presidential election laid bare America’s entrenched power dynamics. Donald Trump embodies corporate impunity and deviant behavior while securing 58% of the white vote. Kamala Harris, a supremely qualified Black woman, was dismissed by white conservatives as unfit to lead and blamed by white progressives for their loss.
This wasn’t a normal election; it was a referendum on who the electorate believes deserves to hold power in this country. And the message was clear: White men in suits are the default; everyone else is a challenge to the status quo.
The normalization of deviance isn’t limited to boardrooms and newsrooms — it’s deeply embedded in our political systems. The powerful protect the powerful, and the rest of us are left to fend for ourselves.
Changing the Story
It’s time to rewrite the narrative. The normalization of deviance thrives because we allow it to. We excuse it with euphemisms like “corporate culture” and “shareholder value.” We let executives evade accountability with golden parachutes and sanitized obituaries.
Here’s the truth: Fines and settlements aren’t enough. We need laws with teeth, regulators with backbone, and news media willing to confront the systems that perpetuate harm.
But more importantly, we need to change what we value. Profits shouldn’t come at the expense of human lives. Accountability shouldn’t be optional. And white men in suits shouldn’t be the only ones deemed worthy of empathy or justice.
Accountability, Regulation, and Humanity
Only accountability stops deviance from being normalized, and accountability must come from every direction — stronger regulation, fearless journalism, and a public that demands better.
CEOs who think they can operate without consequences need to think again. The era of rapacious corporate greed will end, one way or another. One way that doesn’t involve murder is a U.S. Congress with the intestinal fortitude to support laws with teeth, regulators with courage, and fines that hit where it hurts. The best way to hurt rich men in suits: Don’t unalive them. Unrich them and put them in jail where they belong.
To the news media industrial complex: Do your job. Stop glorifying those who profit off human suffering and laundering reputations. Start holding power to account. You were once JOURNALISM, the fourth estate, not the junkyard dog next door. It’s time to reclaim your role as a check to balance the power of Wall Street and Washington.
To the public: Do the work. Don’t let partisanship blind you to the toll you, your family, and your community pay for the rampant, out-of-control greed of Corporate America. Pay attention. Demand transparency. Recognize that every corner cut, every safety regulation ignored, and every dollar funneled to shareholders instead of safety measures is a threat to all of us, regardless of our political affiliation.
The normalization of deviance in Corporate America has brought us to a dangerous place where lives are expendable, and justice is a commodity. It’s time to rewrite the narrative — not with the interests of CEOs in mind, but with the lives of the people they exploit front and center.
If we fail to act, the cost will only grow, measured not in dollars but in lives lost. Corporate America has shown us who they are. Now, we must show them who we are, a united America, and tell them what we won’t tolerate.
