Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times, is facing criticism inside and outside of his newspaper since opting not to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential race.
Earlier this month, executive editor Terry Tang informed the editorial board of Soon-Shiong’s decision that the paper not make an official endorsement this year, as Semafor reported Tuesday, a break with tradition after having backed every Democratic presidential candidate since 2008. Times editorials editor Mariel Garza told Sewell Chan, executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, that the editorial board had intended to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, and that she had already drafted an outline of the piece.
Once news broke that the largest paper in Harris’s home state would not be endorsing her, Garza, who was promoted to the top editorial board role in April, penned a scathing resignation letter, calling out the decision to remain “silent” in “dangerous times.”
“It makes us look craven and hypocritical, maybe even a bit sexist and racist,” Garza writes. “How could we spend eight years railing against [Donald] 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?”
That endorsement came in October 2016, a couple weeks after the paper backed Hillary Clinton in the presidential contest against Trump; the Times endorsed Joe Biden in September 2020.
Soon-Shiong took to social media to clarify his decision for the paper to remain neutral this year, writing that the board was “provided the opportunity to draft a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH candidate during their tenures.”
“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,” the Times owner continued. “Instead of adopting this path as suggested, the Editorial Board chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision,” Soon-Shiong added, placing blame at the feet of the paper’s editorial board. Garza denied to the CJR that she had received such a request from the Times owner.
A spokesperson for the Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision-making process.
“If the aim here was to insulate the Times from accusations of political bias, it seems this intervention may have had the opposite effect,” Chan, who previously served as the paper’s editorial page editor, writes. “Numerous staffers have told me about how pained, even embarrassed, they felt after Trump used the Times to score a political point.”
Indeed, the Trump campaign seized on reporting that the Times wouldn’t endorse to assert that “even her fellow Californians know she’s not up for the job.”
“Another round of chaos,” is how one Times staffer describes the situation to me. Staffers also expressed frustration internally on Slack, according to messages obtained by The Wrap. “We’ve made ourselves the story and still had an impact, even if the intent was to stay neutral,” one staffer said. Another employee wrote, “I’d really like to know how many people have canceled their subscriptions because of this non-endorsement.… Are we going to end up paying for that in the long run?”
Hundreds of readers canceled their subscriptions to the Times on Tuesday, twice as many as the prior day, citing “editorial content” as the reasoning, according to Semafor. Lisa Fung, a former Times employee, cited Soon-Shiong’s “absurd response” and “the direction he wants to take the newspaper” as prompting her decision to unsubscribe.
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In a statement Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times Guild Unit Council bargaining committee expressed concern over Soon-Shiong’s hindrance of the editorial board’s endorsement and his willingness to blame board members for the decision. “We are still pressing for answers from our newsroom management on behalf of our members who have always worked diligently to protect the integrity of our newsroom,” the union wrote.
This controversy comes as the newspaper has faced significant financial troubles in recent years. Layoffs were enacted in January, a move that reduced the editorial staff by more than 20%, with Soon-Shiong justifying the action by saying that the paper could no longer afford to lose nearly $40 million a year. This year has been riddled with upheaval for Times staffers, who have also seen the departure of executive editor Kevin Merida in January, following disagreements with Soon-Shiong about how to ease the financial strain on the paper and the owner’s involvement in editorial decision-making.
Newspaper endorsements of presidential candidates have been steadily dropping as hedge funds gobble up local journalism institutions. In 2022, Alden Global Capital announced that newspapers under their control would no longer endorse candidates for president, governor, or US Senate. The fund’s portfolio, one of the largest newspaper owners in the country, includes the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Orlando Sentinel, Boston Herald, and many more.
The Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos, has not yet endorsed a presidential candidate for the 2024 race. The editorial board is believed to have already drafted an endorsement of Harris and there is a growing sentiment that Bezos could bear responsibility for the delay, according to Oliver Darcy. In an analysis of the last four Post presidential endorsements, only one came after today’s date and it was for Obama’s second term, on October 25. A spokesperson for The Washington Post declined to comment on the lack of an endorsement thus far.
Not everyone is holding back endorsements. Los Angeles Magazine published an endorsement of Harris on Thursday which labeled Trump “an existential threat to everything we love about Los Angeles.” The piece, written by the co-owner of the magazine Ben Meiselas, also torched the Times for its neutrality. “This was an easy decision,” he wrote, adding, “Unlike the Los Angeles Times, I don’t want any ambiguity where we stand. Silence is complicity.”
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