By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-10-24 13:04:02 | Updated at 2024-10-24 15:31:30
2 hours ago
Los Angeles Times editors were asked to fairly analyze both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, but chose to say nothing instead, according to the paper's owner.
Dr Pat Soon-Shiong made the claim after editorial editor Mariel Garza quit in protest for being blocked from endorsing democrat Kamala Harris for president.
'The Editorial Board was provided the opportunity to draft a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH candidate during their tenures at the White House, and how these policies affected the nation,' Soon-Shiong wrote on X.
'In addition, the Board was asked to provide their understanding of the policies and plans enunciated by the candidates during this campaign and its potential effect on the nation in the next four years.
'In this way, with this clear and non-partisan information side-by-side, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being President for the next four years. Instead of adopting this path as suggested, the Editorial Board chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision. Please Vote.'
Los Angeles Times editors were asked to fairly analyze both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, but chose to say nothing instead, according to the paper's owner Dr Pat Soon-Shiong
Soon-Shiong broke his silence on the issue in a social media post on Wednesday night
Members of the newspaper's editorial board were prepared to endorse Harris for commander in chief until a shock announcement from executive editor Terry Tang.
Tang informed staff earlier this month that they would not be endorsing a candidate for president, two people familiar with the conversations told Semafor.
Former LA Times editorial editor Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review in an interview that she resigned because the Times was remaining silent on the contest in 'dangerous times.'
'I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not OK with us being silent,' Garza said. 'In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.'
Garza told CJR she was under no illusions that the endorsement would make much difference.
She claimed the endorsement drafter was as much about how '[Trump] shouldn't be re-elected' as it was how Harris deserved to win.
Tang reportedly said the decision came straight from the paper's owner, Dr. Soon-Shiong, a doctor who made his fortune in the healthcare industry.
The editorial editor of the LA Times Mariel Garza has stepped down after the billionaire owner reportedly blocked its editorial board from endorsing Kamala Harris for president
Garza called the decision 'perplexing to readers, and possibly suspicious.'
She allowed CJR's readers to get a public look at her resignation letter to Tang, whom she said was 'not to blame.'
The decision marks a major departure for Harris' home state newspaper, which has exclusively endorsed Democratic presidential candidates since then-Senator Barack Obama ran in 2008.
Editors did not give a reason for the change when the paper published its statewide and national endorsements last week.
In fact, the only mention of the presidential race was in its first line that said it is 'no exaggeration that this may be the most consequential decision in a generation.'
Members of the newspaper's editorial board were prepared to endorse Harris for commander in chief until a shock announcement from executive editor Terry Tang
Editors also noted at the bottom of the page that 'the editorial board endorses selectively, choosing the most consequential races in which to make recommendations.'
A spokesperson for the paper told Semafor, 'We do not comment on internal discussions or decisions about editorials or endorsements.'
But the LA Times has consistently issued presidential endorsements from the 1880s through 1972, when the paper endorsed Richard Nixon for re-election months after the Watergate hotel break in - a decision then-publisher Otis Chandler said he later came to regret.
It began publishing endorsements again in 2008 with Obama's historic run for president.
Tang reportedly said the decision came straight from the paper's owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a doctor who made his fortune in the healthcare industry
Since then, the editorial board has exclusively endorsed Democratic candidates for the nation's highest office.
But in 2020, Soon-Shiong decided to again overrule the editorial board after it planned to endorse Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic primary.
It would later endorse Biden for president over Trump.
Soon-Shiong had bought out the historic newspaper two years earlier, after spending years working as a skilled surgeon.
He made his money by selling two drug companies: APP Pharmaceuticals to Fresnius Medical Care for $4.6billion in 2008, and Abraxis BioScience to Celgene for $2.8billion in 2010, according to Bloomberg.
Soon-Shiong then purchased the LA Times for $500million in 2018, promising new investments in the languishing newspaper, Politico reports.
LA Times' Editorials Editor Mariel Garza's letter of resignation to executive editor Terry Tang
Terry,
Ever since Dr. Soon-Shiong vetoed the editorial board’s plan to endorse Kamala Harris for president, I have been struggling with my feelings about the implications of our silence.
I told myself that presidential endorsements don’t really matter; that California was not ever going to vote for Trump; that no one would even notice; that we had written so many “Trump is unfit” editorials that it was as if we had endorsed her.
But the reality hit me like cold water Tuesday when the news rippled out about the decision not to endorse without so much as a comment from the LAT management, and Donald Trump turned it into an anti-Harris rip.
Of course it matters that the largest newspaper in the state—and one of the largest in the nation still—declined to endorse in a race this important. And it matters that we won’t even be straight with people about it.
