Iryna Zarutska: Why Legacy Media Decides Which Lives Matter
Why Iryna Zarutska's murder got zero coverage while Daniel Penny got 100+ stories
Here's a disappointing experiment for you: Try searching "Iryna Zarutska" on the New York Times website. Go ahead, I'll wait.
Nothing? That's weird. Now try "Jordan Neely." Dozens of hits, right?
Welcome to the most predictable media literacy lesson you'll get this year, courtesy of two tragic deaths that happened just over two years apart. Both involved homeless men with severe mental health issues attacking innocent people on public transit. The only problem? Legacy media decided one story deserved wall-to-wall coverage, and the other... as of writing this article, is being memory-holed.
The predictability is, unfortunately, not surprising.
The Setup: Two Stories, Same Script, Different Reception
Let me paint you a picture of two remarkably similar incidents that received astronomically different treatment from our nation's "paper of record" and friends.
Case One: Daniel Penny and Jordan Neely. On May 1, 2023, Jordan Neely (a 30-year-old Black homeless man with schizophrenia and a rap sheet longer than my grocery list) boarded an F train in Manhattan. He started shouting about being hungry, not caring about jail, and being ready to die. Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old white Marine veteran, restrained Neely in a chokehold. Neely died.
Case Two: Iryna Zarutska and Decarlos Brown Jr. On August 22, 2025, Iryna Zarutska (a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who fled war only to seek safety in America) was riding Charlotte's light rail when Decarlos Brown Jr., a 34-year-old Black homeless man with schizophrenia and 14+ arrests, including armed robbery, stabbed her multiple times in an unprovoked attack. She died.
Both perpetrators: Black, homeless, mentally ill, repeat offenders, repeatedly released by the system.
Both incidents Were Captured on video and sparked an online debate.
Outcomes: Death of the person who posed a threat (Neely) versus death of a completely innocent victim (Zarutska).
Guess which story legacy media treated with wall-to-wall coverage and which one they handled like a full "Mean Girls" treatment—you can't sit with us, and we're pretending you don't exist.