We saw the video clip in our timelines a couple of days ago and set it aside. There was a rally for Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisc., and one of the speakers said to the crowd, “If you kill one of us, it’s time for us to kill one of yours.” But now we’re learning from The Hill that Kenosha’s only full-time black journalist has quit his job as digital editor at The Kenosha News because the paper used that quote in a headline. No, that wasn’t it: He quit because, he told the New York Times, the headline was misleading about the nature of the rally in question.
So it was a mostly peaceful rally? With some incendiary rhetoric thrown in?
Kenosha newspaper's only full-time Black journalist quits over coverage of Jacob Blake https://t.co/fHXuB1AXS8 pic.twitter.com/JqecCjxkXL
— The Hill (@thehill) September 1, 2020
Daniel J. Thompson, who had served as the paper’s digital editor, objected to a headline reading “Kenosha speaker: ‘If you kill one of us, it’s time for us to kill one of yours,’” according to The New York Times. He said the headline was misleading about the nature of the rally in question.
“The story is about the entire reaction of all the speakers and people in attendance, and that quote is one outlier falling within a flood of positive ones,” Thompson told the Times. Thompson noted that the same rally featured remarks from Blake’s father calling for protests to remain peaceful and said they would have been a better source for the headline.
That would be kind of like CNN’s correspondent taking a photo of an empty park in Portland to show where there wasn’t rioting.
Recommended
Daniel J. Thompson resigned over the following accurate quote from a speaker at a BLM rally: "If you kill one of us, it’s time for us to kill one of yours." He quit his newspaper because it practiced journalism. https://t.co/DjmKiDRVNA
— I did not and will not vote for him. Calm down. (@jtLOL) September 1, 2020
If you quit your newspaper for accurately quoting a speaker at a rally, because you don't think it reflects well on the rally's cause, you're not a journalist anyway. You're an activist. pic.twitter.com/HvN0mDxNQG
— I did not and will not vote for him. Calm down. (@jtLOL) September 2, 2020
We’re fairly sure this is Jacob Blake’s father calling for protests to remain peaceful at the same rally:
#JacobBlake Sr looks to incite violence against law enforcement by #BLM with claims that National Guard troops in #Kenosha working to restore #LawAndOrder want to shoot black people: “See they brought these cats in over here back behind that fence to put a cap in your ass” pic.twitter.com/nXaBW6ohQk
— DrConservaMom???? (@ConservaMomUSA) August 29, 2020
He could've tried doing a journalist thing and writing the 'more balanced' piece he wanted, rather than having a hissyfit and giving up his platform about an accurate quote. That would've been cool.
It's almost like he just wanted to suppress information.— ?? (@sideeyepocalyps) September 1, 2020
TLDR: He quit because the paper accurately reported a quote he wanted concealed.
Good riddance.
— Alex Jeffries ? (@the1codemonkey) September 1, 2020
Oh he was disturbed by a newspaper doing journalism instead of activism? ?♂️
— Living 518 (@Falze_AMB) September 1, 2020
Daniel J. Thompson resigned over the following accurate quote from a speaker at a BLM rally: "If you kill one of us, it’s time for us to kill one of yours." He quit his newspaper because it practiced journalism.
— FffffactsMatter (@covfefeLIGHT) September 1, 2020
So his response was to cry like a baby and then threaten to dox the headline writer? The headline writer that captured the exact quote word for word?
He’s just a wonderful “journalist“.
Doesn’t even sound like he’s a good human being.
— Aloyious (@BillofRightsAll) September 1, 2020
Thompson apparently resigned because the paper reported this ACTUAL QUOTE from a speaker at a BLM rally: "If you kill one of us, it’s time for us to kill one of yours." He quit his newspaper because it practiced journalism. He'll fit right in at @CNN
— TruTexanPatriot (@TruTexanPatriot) September 2, 2020
Well in Thompson’s defense, he had no idea taking a job as a reporter at a newspaper would involve any actual journalism.
— Alberto de la Cruz (@albertodelacruz) September 2, 2020
Related: