Associated Press
Wed 23 October 2024
FILE - The Los Angeles Times newspaper headquarters is shown in El Segundo, Calif., Jan. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The editorials editor of the Los Angeles Times has resigned after the newspaper’s owner blocked the editorial board’s plans to endorse Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president, a journalism trade publication reported Wednesday.
Mariel 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.”
In a post on the social media platform X that did not directly mention the resignation, LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong said the board was asked to do a factual analysis of the policies of Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump during their time at the White House.
Additionally, "The board was asked to provide (its) 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,” he wrote. “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.”
Soon-Shiong, who bought the paper in 2018, said the board “chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision.”
Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review that the board had intended to endorse Harris and she had drafted the outline of a proposed editorial.
A LA Times spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
The LA Times Guild Unit Council & Bargaining Committee said it was “deeply concerned about our owner’s decision to block a planned endorsement in the presidential race."
“We are even more concerned that he is now unfairly assigning blame to Editorial Board members for his decision not to endorse," the guild said in a statement. “We are still pressing for answers from newsroom management on behalf of our members.”
Trump’s campaign jumped on Garza’s departure, saying the state’s largest newspaper had declined to endorse the Democratic ticket after backing Harris in her previous races for U.S. Senate and state attorney general.
Her exit comes about 10 months after then-Executive Editor Kevin Merida left the paper in what was called a “mutually agreed” upon departure. At the time, the news organization said it had fallen well short of its digital subscriber goals and needed a revenue boost to sustain the newsroom and its digital operations
Los Angeles Times Editorials Editor Resigns Over Owner’s Decision Not To Endorse In Presidential Race; Patrick Soon-Shiong Responds To Backlash
Ted Johnson
Wed 23 October 2024
UPDATED, with comment from Times’ owner: After Mariel Garza resigned due to the Times’ owner refusing to allow an endorsement in the presidential race, proprietor Patrick Soon-Shiong took to X in an attempt to quell the resulting online backlash. He said soon after the news broke: “So many comments about the @latimes Editorial Board not providing a Presidential endorsement this year. Let me clarify how this decision came about. 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. 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.”
PREVIOUS STORY: The editorials editor of the Los Angeles Times has resigned after the owner of the publication’s owner refused to allow an endorsement in the presidential race.
Mariel Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review that she is “resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent. In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”
Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Times, informed the editorial board earlier this month that the publication would be making no endorsement in the presidential race. The Times has endorsed each cycle since 2008. According to CJR, the editorial board planned to endorse Kamala Harris.
In her resignation letter, per CJR, Garza wrote that while she had told herself “presidential endorsements don’t really matter,” the “reality bit me like cold water on Tuesday when the news rippled out about the decision not to endorse without so much as a comment from LAT management, and Donald Trump turned it into an anti-Harris rip.”
After the news on Tuesday that the Times would not be endorsing, the Trump campaign sent out an email calling the decision the “latest blow to Harris-Walz.” “Even her fellow Californians know she’s not up for the job,” the Trump campaign wrote.
Garza wrote that the decision not to endorse “makes us look craven and hypocritical, maybe even a bit sexist and racist. How could we spend eight years railing against Trump and the danger his leadership poses to the country and then fail to endorse the perfectly decent Democrat challenger — who we previously endorsed for the US Senate?”
L.A. Times Readers Vow to Unsubscribe After Non-Endorsement
Grace Harrington
Wed 23 October 2024
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin
Los Angeles Times readers are threatening to unsubscribe from the paper after its owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, reportedly ordered the editorial board not to endorse a presidential candidate.
Semafor reported Tuesday that the paper was ready to endorse Kamala Harris for president—it has endorsed the Democratic candidate in every election cycle since it resumed making endorsements in 2008—before Soon-Shiong shot them down.
The only reference to the presidential election in the paper’s lengthy endorsement list calling the 2024 race “the most consequential election in a generation. And we’re not just talking about the presidential race.”
This ignited the ire of some L.A. Times readers, who flocked to X to say they’re canceling their subscription.
“Just canceled my subscription, @latimes. WTF is wrong with you?” wrote screenwriter Randi Mayem Singer. She also posted confirmation of her cancellation.
Evan Handler, who plays Harry Goldenblatt on Sex and the City, said he canceled his subscription and urged others to do the same.
“I don’t need to spend $15.96/month to read only what Patrick Soon-Schiong allows the paper’s staff to publish,” he wrote on X.
“Just cancelled my 30+ year subscription to the LA Times. Will miss it but if democracy is not important to the times then the times is not important to me,” said user Andrew Levey.
Sports journalist Jemele Hill criticized the editorial board for going along with the non-endorsement.
“The cowardice of journalists during this time is so utterly disappointing. The very nature of this job is to disrupt and sometimes tell people the uncomfortable truth. That a paper like the LA Times has abandoned that responsibility sadly speaks to where we are,” she wrote.
Other users criticized Soon-Shiong directly.
Actress Maya Contreras tweeted a screenshot of Tesla CEO Elon Musk congratulating Soon-Shiong on the purchase of the L.A. Times, and Soon-Shiong thanking him.
“Everyone should know that Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is South African (like Elon Musk), a billionaire (like Elon Musk), and friends… with Elon Musk,” she wrote.
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