Idioms

kill the messenger

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don't kill the messenger

Don't get angry at or punish someone who is simply delivering bad or undesirable news as they are not responsible for it. A: "What do you mean I'm being sued by my ex-wife? I'll knock your lights out!" B: "Hey man, I'm just doing my job. Don't kill the messenger!" Hey, don't kill the messenger! I just happened to overhear some of the teachers talking, and I thought you guys would like to know that you're getting a pop quiz in History today. I'm a news anchor—it is my job to report the news, so don't kill the messenger. I didn't cause the bad things to happen!
See also: kill, messenger

kill the messenger

To get angry at or punish someone who is simply delivering bad or undesirable news, though they are not responsible for it. Used most commonly in the phrase "don't kill the messenger." I'm a news anchor—it is my job to report the news, even the bad stuff. But some people want to kill the messenger, as if I were the one who caused the bad news to begin with. A: "What do you mean I'm being sued by my ex-wife? I'll knock your lights out!" B: "Hey, I'm just here to deliver the subpoena. Don't kill the messenger!"
See also: kill, messenger
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References in periodicals archive
Comments ranged from "I think it would be easier to just 'kill the messenger!'" to a rural physician who looped our book into his bola tie and said, "I'm never letting this book out of my sight!"
I like "The Paper," "State of Play" and "Kill the Messenger." I've never seen "Citizen Kane." a I'm going to take some liberties and add "The Newsroom" and season 5 of "The Wire." The HBO series were mini-movies to me.
Sheen's next roles will be in Kill the Messenger, based on the true story of a journalist who exposed the CIA's role in importing cocaine into America in the 1990s, and Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, as one of Bathsheba Everdene's suitors William Boldwood.
"If you can't kill the message, kill the messenger. It appears this is what my detractors are doing," he added.
Album one, Hate Me Now (August 2011), and album two, Don't Kill the Messenger (September 2011), are now available for online purchase via iTunes and Amazon.
But don't kill the messenger: The Catholic church in the United States lives the experience the data describe."
Though he has four theatrical features under his belt, director Michael Cuesta is perhaps best known for his work on TV series "Homeland" and "Six Feet Under," and the worst one can say about his new feature, "Kill the Messenger," is that it sometimes plays like a condensed version of a first-rate cable miniseries.
Based on a true story, Kill the Messenger stars Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, American Hustle) as Gary Webb, the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist who uncovered the CIA's role in using cocaine money to arm Nicaraguan rebels.
"Peter Landesman will write the screenplay, based on the two books the studio optioned: 'Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion,' by Webb, and Nick Schou's 'Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb,'" Variety reported.
KILL THE MESSENGER Cert 15, Running time 112mins ???
He will align Focus with promising filmmakers like Michael Cuesta ("L.I.E.") on the release of "Kill the Messenger," in which Jeremy Renner stars as a journalist who broke the CIA Nicaragua cocaine scandal; Tarsem Singh on Ryan Reynolds starrer "Self- % less"; and James Marsh on "Theory of Everything." And he'll continue the relationship with production entities like Working Title ("The World's End," "Theory of Everything"), as well as distributing "Fifty Shades of Grey" (a deal that preceded him).
"It comes down to politics at sort of all levels, and some of it's nasty and some of it is trying to destroy the message or even kill the messenger so to speak," he said.
Pete Wevurski, managing editor, BANG-EB and executive editor for the Oakland Tribune, said the project "is essential to Oakland and essential to us as journalists who wish to emphasize the point that you can kill the messenger, but the message is still going to get through."
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