On what felt like an early New York City summer day, a group of young women gathered outside Manhattan's criminal courthouse last week, discussing Luigi Mangione and the man he is accused of murdering. One woman, wearing a button with Mangione's face, said of the late UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson: "Fuck Brian Thompson, that's all I'm going to say." Another remarked that Thompson's children were "better off without him" and told them to "enjoy the blood money." A third commented: "I'm not saying we should all take up arms, but when your democracy has eroded and there's no other option, what are we meant to do?"
Such commentary has become common among Mangione supporters who attend his court appearances. However, some supporters, including the three women quoted above, have secured New York City-issued press credentials. The women—Abril Rios, Ashley Rojas, and Lena Weissbrot—showed off their credentials outside court and posed for a photo.
City-issued credentials are not golden tickets to unfettered access, but they provide privileges such as passage across police and fire lines, reserved seating in courtrooms, and permission to use laptops. The Guardian reported months ago that several Mangione supporters had obtained press credentials. City officials took notice this week when the trio's comments went viral.
City council member David Carr said, according to the New York Post: "This is America – people have the freedom to say or write whatever awful, batshit crazy things they want. But these deranged homicide-fan girls should never be allowed access to courtrooms or official press events with the imprimatur of the City of New York."
The mayor's office for media and entertainment (MOME) insisted that requirements had not changed since Zohran Mamdani took office. Dora Pekec, a senior spokesperson for Mamdani, said in an email: "The Mamdani administration is reassessing the city's process and standards for press credentialing." Mamdani reportedly said at a press conference: "We will initiate our own process to review these, and what I will say is there is a good-natured debate to be had about where a press pass should extend and where it shouldn't. However, the three people that we are talking about don't fall within that debate."
The prospect of a debate has renewed discussion about what constitutes legitimate press for credentialing purposes: is social media a form of media that merits a credential? Who makes that call and how? Roy Gutterman, director of the Newhouse School's Tully Center for Free Speech at Syracuse University, said: "Whenever a government agency gets to decide who is a journalist, it can be concerning. The blurring of lines between activism and journalism is a concerning trend. We've seen questionable credentialing at the upper levels of the federal government, too." He added: "Activism and independent journalism are not the same. If legitimate reporters and news outlets are being denied access because activists are getting access, it is troubling."
New York City officials have made unconstitutional credentialing decisions before social media muddied the waters. In 2008, three bloggers sued the NYPD after their press credential applications were denied. They alleged the NYPD rejected their applications because they were from online or alternative news organizations, violating the constitution. The NYPD agreed to grant them credentials months later. Their lawyer, civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, continued negotiating with city officials to determine fair, constitutional criteria for credentialing. Siegel said: "It's very hard to define what a journalist is. The best we could do at that point was to have some objective standards." He also noted concerns about the police department continuing credentialing because they were hostile to critics of the status quo.
This hostility came to a head during former mayor Bill de Blasio's administration as the NYPD routinely denied or revoked press credentials for journalists they did not like, said Ron Kuby, a veteran defense attorney focusing on civil rights. The NYPD repeatedly arrested journalists covering 2020 protests over George Floyd's murder. Kuby said: "Sometimes, they would even arrest journalists while they were doing news gathering, use that false arrest to revoke their press credentials, and then refuse to reinstate them after these false charges were dismissed." In 2021, city hall moved credentialing outside the NYPD's authority to the mayor's office.
MOME also issues event-specific credentials. Thirty-two event-specific credentials for Mangione court proceedings have been issued to self-described independent journalists between February 2025 and April 2026, the Guardian learned. Event-specific credentials potentially give non-journalist content creators seating and computer access that working journalists need. If clout is king, there is even less incentive to abide by rules of courthouse decorum, potentially worsening access issues.
Kuby pointed out that unpopular commentary is not the same as inappropriate conduct, saying: "As a general rule in American life and the first amendment, we don't regulate journalism because it's the job of journalists to publish things the government frequently does not like." Siegel said if the current press credentialing system creates systemic logistical problems with access to court proceedings, then Mamdani should convene with press representatives and city attorneys to revisit objective standards. Kuby and Siegel suggested an overflow courtroom with closed-circuit video as a way to ensure adequate access.
Mangione will face a state-level trial on 8 September for allegedly shooting Thompson in Midtown Manhattan on 4 December 2024. He also faces a federal trial related to the killing and has pleaded not guilty in both cases. Rios has maintained she is a member of the media, posting on Monday: "I'm not a reporter I work in social media which is also press thank you."
