LA Times editors quit after owner calls off Kamala Harris endorsement
Photo from LA Times website
LOS ANGELES – Two more members of the Los Angeles Times editorial board have resigned following owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s decision preventing the paper from endorsing a candidate in the presidential election — an endorsement that was expected to go to Democrat Kamala Harris.
Robert Greene and Karin Klein both announced the departures Thursday, on the heels of Wednesday’s resignation of editorial page editor Mariel Garza.
Greene, a Pulitzer Prize winner, told the Columbia Journalism Review he was “deeply disappointed” in Soon-Shiong’s decision against an endorsement.
He conceded “that it is the owner’s decision to make. But it hurt particularly because one of the candidates, Donald Trump, has demonstrated such hostility to principles that are central to journalism — respect for the truth and reverence for democracy.”
Klein wrote on Facebook that she also respects the right of the paper’s owner to “interfere with editorials.”
“What steams me is that a decision against an editorial at this point is actually a decision to do an editorial — a wordless one, a make-believe-invisible one that unfairly implies that she (Harris) has grievous faults that somehow put her on a level with Donald Trump. And hits just at the time when she cannot afford hits. Patrick Soon-Shiong is doing the opposite of the neutrality he said he was seeking. Enough. Done.”
Soon-Shiong wrote on X on Wednesday that the editorial board had been asked to craft an analysis of the positives and negatives of each presidential candidate’s policies, but said the board “chose to remain silent.”
Soon-Shiong told Spectrum News Thursday he wanted to publish such an analysis so voters could decide for themselves.
“I want us desperately to air all the voices on the opinion side, on the op-ed side,” he said. “I don’t know how (readers) look upon me or our family as `ultra progressive’ or not, but I’m an independent.”
The Times itself has yet to comment or report on its decision on the endorsement issue.
Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review that she believed it was wrong for the paper to stay “silent” on the presidential election during such “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.”
She said she had already begun crafting the paper’s editorial endorsing Harris.
On Friday, the Board of Directors of the Society of Professional Journalists Los Angeles Pro Chapter issued a statement urging Soon-Shiong to “reconsider and reverse” his decision against making an endorsement.
“Considering everything that the Times opinion section has published about the threat to democracy of another Trump administration, it is inexplicable and irresponsible that on the threshold of the most consequential election of our lifetime, the leading newspaper not just in our region, but in the Western United States, would suddenly and mysteriously fall silent,” according to the SPJ board.
The board of the L.A. Times Guild, which represents the paper’s journalists, issued a statement Wednesday expressing concern about the decision to withhold an endorsement, then said it was “more concerned that (Soon-Shiong) is now unfairly assigning blame to editorial board members for his decision.”
On Thursday, the Guild issued a plea to readers who have said they plan to cancel their Times subscriptions in response, saying such a move would negatively impact newsroom journalists who have no involvement with editorials.
“That subscription underwrites the salaries of hundreds of journalists in our newsroom,” according to the Guild. “Our member-journalists work every day to keep readers informed during these tumultuous times. A healthy democracy is an informed democracy.”
The Washington Post announced Friday that it also will not endorse a candidate in the presidential race this year — or any future year.
“The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election,” Washington Post publisher Will Lewis said in a statement. “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.”
The paper reported, citing unnamed sources, that the decision came directly from the paper’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. (CNS)
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