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Three members of The Los Angeles Times’editorial board have resigned over the decision by the publisher, billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, to block the newspaper from endorsing a presidential candidate.
The board had been planning to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. The Timeshas endorsed a presidential candidate in every election since 2008.
Mariel Garza, editorial page editor, submitted her resignation on Wednesday.
“The non-endorsement undermines the integrity of the editorial board and every single endorsement we make, down to school board races,” she wrote in a letter to executive editor Terry Tang. “People will justifiably wonder if each endorsement was a decision made by a group of journalists after extensive research and discussion, or through decree by the owner.
“In these dangerous times, staying silent isn’t just indifference, it is complicity. I’m standing up by stepping down from the editorial board. Please accept this as my formal resignation, effective immediately.”
Board members Robert Greene, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and Karin Klein resigned the following day.
“I recognize that it is the owner’s decision to make,” Greene wrote. “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.”
“I respect the owner’s right to interfere with editorials; that is one place where he ethically can do so,” Klein wrote. “… 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 (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.”
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, Soon-Shiong denied trying to silence the board.
“So many comments about the L.A. Timeseditorial board not providing a presidential endorsement this year. Let me clarify how this decision came about,” he wrote. “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.”
Soon-Shiong concluded, “Instead of adopting this path as suggested, the editorial board chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision. Please vote.”
The Board of Directors of the Society of Professional Journalists Los Angeles Pro Chapter urged the publisher to reconsider and reverse his decision.
“Nobody disputes Soon-Shiong’s legal or constitutional right to make such a decision,” SPJ-LA said in a statement. “But the manner in which his personal decision was reached, and was announced to the editorial staff — and the paper’s utter failure to offer any reporting at all on an action so arbitrary that the editorials editor and two longtime editorial writers, including a Pulitzer winner, quickly resigning over it — demands a public explanation and correction.
“We are often reminded that ‘the press’ is the only industry singled out for special constitutional notice and protection under the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. But that protection is not an unearned privilege. Implied in the Framers’ recognition is both the special role the press plays in a democracy, and the special obligations and responsibilities the press carries that flow from it.
“Editorial endorsements and ballot recommendations are not simply slate cards or voter guides. They are also a profound statement of institutional values, and in that light, this decision speaks volumes, and not in a good way.
“Considering everything that the Timesopinion 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.
“We urge Soon-Shiong to reverse course and begin the process of repairing the damage to his paper’s reputation and staff morale.”
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 Timessubscriptions 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.”
On Friday, Robert Kagan, editor at large of The Washington Post, tendered his resignation after the newspaper announced that it would not make an endorsement in the presidential race for the first time in more than 30 years. Semaforreported that the editorial board had drafted an endorsement of Harris but it was vetoed by the paper’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.