American media outlets have downplayed the killing of a 69-year-old Jewish man, with headlines suggesting that he died from “hitting his head.” The victim, Paul Kessler, died when he fell to the ground after a pro-Hamas protester allegedly hit him in the head with a megaphone.
Kessler was holding an Israeli flag at a California gas station on Sunday when a pro-Palestinian protester smashed him in the head with a megaphone, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles said in a statement.
After witnesses called 911 to report a battery, Kessler was brought to the hospital, where he died from blunt-force injuries on Monday morning. The Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office immediately ruled his death a homicide.
The Ventura County Police Department said on Monday that they “determined the cause of death to be blunt force head injury and the manner of death homicide.”
“When a manner of death of homicide is made, it’s simply stating that the death occurred at the hands of another person or the actions of another person contributed to the death of a person,” medical examiner Christopher Young said at a Monday press conference.
Although a homicide ruling is not an indication of a crime itself, the ruling does imply that Kessler died as a result of another person’s actions. Media have suggested otherwise whilst reporting on Kessler’s death.
NBC News stealth-edited a headline on Tuesday to admit that Kessler was killed. The original headline, “Man dies after hitting head during Israel and Palestinian rallies in California, officials say,” was edited to, “Jewish man killed in altercation at dueling pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian rallies in California.”
A New York Times headline read: “Jewish man dies after alteration at dueling protests in California.” The Los Angeles Times reported that “‘Conflicting statements complicate investigation into Jewish man’s death at protest,” and CBS Los Angeles wrote that “Jewish man, 69, dies after clash during dueling protests over Israel-Palestinian conflict in LA area.”
ABC correspondent Matt Gutman said on Tuesday that “Kessler . . . became involved in a physical altercation with a counter-protester.” NBC co-host Hoda Kotb mentioned that Kessler died after “[falling backwards, hit[ting] his head on the ground.”
Ventura County’s sheriff’s department has not ruled out the possibility of a hate crime. Jewish Americans have faced a rise in antisemitic crimes since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on October 7 and killed more than 1,400 Israelis, including 31 American citizens. FBI director Christopher Wray said last week that antisemitism in America has reached “historic levels” since Hamas’s invasion, adding that even though Jews make up only 2.4 percent of the U.S. population, they suffer 60 percent of the country’s religious-based hate crimes.