Daughter of L.A. Times Owner Says Endorsement Decision Stemmed From Harris Stance on Gaza War

As the nation counted down this fall to a bitterly polarized election, the editorial board of The Los Angeles Times drew up a detailed outline for an endorsement that seemed obvious for an institution that had leaned liberal for generations: Vice President Kamala Harris should be the next president of the United States.

A California native and resident of Los Angeles, Ms. Harris was not only a unifying and inspiring generational figure, in the board members’ view, but also an important bulwark between Donald J. Trump and democratic institutions. They were unaware, however, that a different and more powerful group had been meeting — the family of Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the newspaper’s owner — with far different plans for the newspaper’s voice.

This week, the biotech billionaire who had bought the paper in 2018 for $500 million acted on those plans with scant internal or public explanation, abruptly vetoing the planned endorsement, informing the board through an intermediary that The Los Angeles Times would make no recommendation in the presidential race.

For days, readers in overwhelmingly liberal Southern California speculated angrily about a decision that was widely regarded as a favor to Mr. Trump and a vote of no confidence in Ms. Harris.

Thousands of readers canceled subscriptions. Three members of the editorial board resigned. Nearly 200 staff members signed an open letter to management demanding an explanation, complaining that the decision this close to the election had undermined the news organization’s trust with readers. The Times’s News Guild, the newsroom’s union, lodged a protest. In social media posts and subsequent interviews with his own news organization, Dr. Soon-Shiong framed the choice as an attempt at neutrality.

But in a stunning statement on Saturday, his daughter, Nika Soon-Shiong, 31, a progressive political activist who has frequently been accused of trying to meddle in the paper’s news coverage, said the decision was motivated by Ms. Harris’s continued support for Israel in its war in Gaza.