Toledo Blade writers say managers ‘manipulated’ stories on pro-Trump mob’s attack

Block Communications defended Susan Block’s right to post her views on her Facebook account, telling WTOL in a statement that she “has a First Amendment right to freedom of speech and her opinions,” but noting that her “views do not represent those of Block Communications.”

John Robinson Block, the Blade’s publisher and Susan Block’s brother-in-law, declined to comment on her Facebook post to WTOL, but suggested that he’s unconcerned by the reporter’s byline strike, noting that when he grew up reading the Blade, it did not have bylines.

Block Communications didn’t immediately respond to a message from The Post early on Friday. The paper’s editor and managing editor also didn’t immediately respond to messages.

The case is just the latest conflict between the Block family and journalists at its newspapers, which also include the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, over how to cover President Trump. In Pittsburgh, John Robinson Block oversaw the contentious firing of an anti-Trump cartoonist, and the publication of an editorial defending the president’s offensive language toward immigrants.

At the Blade, Rosenkrans said journalists have grown used to the owner calling top editors to make demands about story coverage.

But the reporters felt a clear line was crossed on Wednesday, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, halting the work of Congress to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. One woman breaking into Congress was fatally shot by a police officer, and three others died of medical emergencies. A U.S. Capitol Police officer injured in the attack also died.

Liz Skalka, a Blade politics reporter, noticed that editors changed the lead of a reaction piece she wrote to say that “mostly” Trump supporters were rioting. That left open the idea that others may have also been involved, as some Republicans have falsely suggested while pointing the finger at antifa. Skalka removed her byline in protest from the print edition of the story.

Similar changes were made to photo captions and wire stories, Rosenkrans said, disturbing journalists in the newsroom.

“I feel like most people in this country took [Wednesday] as a flash point and realized that the rejection of truth in journalism is dangerous,” he said.

Instead, the Guild said in a statement, “management at The Blade manipulated wording in headlines, stories, and photo captions to alter the reality of what occurred during the insurrection at the Capitol.”

Rosenkrans said he hopes the byline strike makes it clear that the journalists at the paper won’t stand for anything less than accurate reporting.

“There’s no question about what happened on Wednesday,” he said of the attack on the Capitol. “What we saw was an act of casting doubt on objective fact, which is absurd at a newspaper.”