Who Was the Last Opinion Journalist Assassinated?

It had been a good long time.

I don’t yet know who murdered Charlie Kirk, or why.

But one thing that makes this case so shocking is that in recent decades, American opinion journalists, especially pundits who comment on national affairs like Charlie, have seldom been assassinated.

As an opinion journalist, it’s my opinion that that was a good thing.

The primary target of assassination in the U.S. has been political leaders. (Perhaps the dramatic assassination of Abraham Lincoln set the template for the culture.)

This is not to say that journalists don’t get killed. Wikipedia has two relevant lists, List of Assassinations and List of Journalists Killed in the United States.

The latter includes journalists killed while practicing their trade, but not all by targeted assassinations, such as being hit by a cannonball during the Civil War or having the World Trade Center fall on them. The former list defines assassinations broadly to include mob hits, beefing rappers, crazed fans, and so forth.

Comparing the two lists gives a reasonable history of assassinations of journalists.

Paywall here.