On Sunday, a Jewish man at a pro-Israel demonstration was reportedly hit in the head with a megaphone by a pro-Hamas protester who crossed the street to confront him. Paul Kessler died from his injuries a day later. 

In its statement on the incident, the Ventura County Sheriff's Department said that multiple people called to report a battery had occurred, indicating from the beginning that this wasn't an accident. Overnight, Kessler's death was officially ruled a homicide, and pictures of the alleged assailant began to circulate online. 

By early evening, the facts of the case were largely no longer in dispute, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles condemned the killing. Unfortunately, the mainstream press continued to play games with the story throughout the night. Some of the headlines were downright disgusting. 

#BREAKING Elderly Jewish man dies after confrontation with pro-Palestinian protesters in Westlake Villagehttps://t.co/QfQD5Oy1uZ

— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) November 7, 2023

If that headline and article were all you knew about the situation, you might assume that Kessler just randomly passed out and died. You might also think that he was the aggressor in the "confrontation" even though reports are that the pro-Hamas protester approached him.

TIME and the BBC did the same thing, except those outlets did it much later after the main facts had already been confirmed, including the ruling of the death as a homicide. 

Jewish man in California dies after confrontation during Israel-Hamas War protests https://t.co/abB0he7cgS

— TIME (@TIME) November 7, 2023

Jewish man dies after dispute at duelling Israel-Palestinian protests https://t.co/8ybxVdFpF6

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 7, 2023

NBC News actually stealth-edited its headline, apparently realizing how embarrassing its original one was. 

.@NBCNews quietly stealth-edited a headline where they clearly downplayed the killing of an elderly Jewish man during an altercation with pro-Palestinian protesters pic.twitter.com/1vxuBjTgDZ

— Nicole Silverio (@NicoleMSilverio) November 7, 2023

Riddle me this. What's the difference between this situation and what happened in Charlottesville in 2017, where a neo-nazi murdered a young woman with his car? What makes that killing a generational event reported on for years but the killing of this Jewish man in Ventura County a small blip worthy of only a passing mention? 

I think the answer is that there's really no difference. In the former case, you had evil people walking around with tiki torches shouting terrible things. In the latter case, you had evil people walking around with Palestinian flags chanting genocidal slogans. The only reason this latest killing will be largely glossed over is that it doesn't fit the left's predominant narrative. That, to be frank, is gross and wrong.

It's scary to think how many of these stories would be completely buried if it weren't for alternative news sources. I expect the killing of Kessler to escalate into a major event nationally, but that is only going to happen because sites like RedState exist. Had this been left to the legacy media, you'd have never heard another word about it because it doesn't fit their political wants.