Kenosha News editor quits when paper’s coverage of Jacob Blake rally focuses on retaliation threat

A Wisconsin-based journalist said he quit his job at The Kenosha News after objecting to a headline about a Jacob Blake rally that focused on a violent threat made by one of the speakers.

Daniel J. Thompson, a now-former digital editor for The Kenosha News, said he was the only Black journalist at the paper. Thompson said he attended a "Justice for Jacob” rally for Blake but the paper’s headline gave a misleading impression of the event.

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According to The New York Times, the original headline on the paper’s website said, “Kenosha speaker: ‘If you kill one of us, it’s time for us to kill one of yours.’”

Thompson feels that the headline is misleading and only focused on a particular speaker who didn’t represent all the attendees.

“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.

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“The things that frustrated me most is Mr. Blake, Jacob Blake’s father, himself personally, called for a night of peace, of no destruction, no riots,” Thompson added.

The Kenosha News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Thompson said he sent a text message to the paper’s executive editor when he objected to the headline.

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“I don’t even know if I can associate with the company after that... I need to calm down, but I wanted you to know immediately,” Thompson wrote to accompany an image of the headline, according to the Times.

“Yes you should calm down. That is a public threat, and it is an exact quote at a rally that was to that point totally on message,” Kenosha News executive editor Bob Heisse responded, according to the Times, which cited a screenshot provided by Thompson.

“Then I quit,” Thompson reportedly replied.

Thompson posted a video on Facebook explaining his decision.

“I did what I did because today is about Jacob Blake, it’s about his family. It’s about moving forward to gather peacefully, and I saw that today,” Thompson said in a video posted on Saturday.

“That headline did not reflect it and when they refused to change it, I quit,” he said.

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The headline now says, “Kenosha speaker strays from message at rally.”

Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot seven times on Aug. 23, allegedly by Kenosha police Officer Rusten Sheskey. Video seen on social media shows Sheskey shooting at Blake as he reached into his car, where Wisconsin officials later said a knife was found. The shooting left Blake paralyzed from the waist down and has resulted in widespread protests.

Fox News’ Frank Miles contributed to this report.