People think that is a joke but reports have it that is just how the Reverend Jackson operates.
And it is nothing new among leftists. Abbie Hoffman, Black Panthers, and other radicals met with the producers of the first Woodstock concert and demanded that they be given $10,000 (in 1969 no less) as well as space to put out their agitprop or else face the consequences of bad advance publicity and possibly worse. Considering that at the actual event, the fences were torn down and the food vendors' booth was burned down by arsonists, and Abbie Hoffman tried to hijack the mic during the Who's performace, who knows what "consequences" they were threatening.