On Monday, an elderly Jewish man, 65-year-old Paul Kessler, succumbed to injuries sustained during a pro-Palestinian protest over the weekend after being hit in the head by a pro-Palestinian protester.
Despite the extensive media reporting on the deadly incident, the NBC News headline is classic mainstream media gaslighting. The original headline read: “Man Dies After Hitting His Head During Israeli, Palestinian Rallies in California, Officials Say.”
Keller didn’t just ‘hit his head’. He was attacked by a pro-Palestinian protester and attacked with a megaphone.
The vicious blow caused Keller to fall to the ground, where he suffered an additional blow to the head, aggravating his injuries.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that Kessler “had a physical altercation with counter-protesters” during which he “fell backwards and hit his head on the ground.”
The statement added that the “Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head and the manner of homicide.”
Mr. Keller died by homicide, not by “hitting his head” during a passive fall.
After being called out for trolling their audience, NBC updated the headline to provide context in which Kessler died after an “altercation” with protesters. The updated headline reads: “Jewish man dies after hitting his head in altercation during clashes between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian rallies in California.”
The headline still fails to mention that the blow to the head came from a pro-Palestinian protester.
At this time, NBC has also not noted that the headline has been changed.
What is this cup, @NBCNews?
You can’t claim you didn’t have enough information because your own article quotes the medical examiner calling it a murder… pic.twitter.com/whjkgtV3bJ
— AG (@AGHamilton29) November 7, 2023
Content warning ⚠️ – an elderly Jewish man was killed by a pro-Palestinian protester who hit him on the head with a megaphone during yesterday’s Israeli rally.
Unfortunately, the victim died of internal bleeding.
May his memory be a blessing and his attacker… pic.twitter.com/41ZXNutwvK
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) November 7, 2023
The sheriff’s department said their investigation continues and the possibility of hate crime charges has not been ruled out.