Two more top editors at the Los Angeles Times resigned after the newspaper’s billionaire owner blocked the expected endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Editorial board members Robert Greene and Karin Klein resigned Thursday, joining editorial page editor Mariel Garza, over biotech entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong’s decision to stay silent on the upcoming election, according to reports.
Greene, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the Times, has written editorials on the drought, criminal justice reform, policing, mental health and Los Angeles County government.
Klein wrote about education, the environment, food and science.
They followed their boss Garza out the door after she left Wednesday because Soon-Shiong blocked the editorial board in the middle of its preparation to support Harris, Semaphore first reported.
“I’m resigning because I want to make it clear that I’m not okay with us being silent,” Garza said in an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review. “In dangerous times, honest people must stand up. That’s how I’m standing up.”
Hugo Martin, a member of the unit council for the LA Times branch, told the Hollywood Reporter that “the recent resignations of talented journalists are a great loss for the newsroom and the editorial board in particular” and that “we stand by our colleagues who have been wrongly and unfairly blamed for not approving this decision.”
In her interview with CJR, Garza said the paper’s editorial board had been poised to endorse Harris for president and that she had already begun writing a brief for an editorial announcing the decision.
While the editorial page editor admitted she didn’t believe the endorsement would affect the LA Times’ already liberal readership, she said the endorsement was important because “this is a point in time where you speak your conscience, no matter what.”
She said after a series of editorials about the dangers of former President Donald Trump’s re-election, it was “logical” for the paper to draw its support for his opponent.
The LA Times union said in an email to union members Wednesday that it sent a letter to Soon-Shiong, who has owned the paper since 2018, and editor Terry Tang asking for a reason why the approval was revoked, but did not. had received a response, Semaphore reported.
“We believe the company owes staff an explanation as to why this decision was made after years of general election approval,” the union reportedly wrote.
After news of Garza’s departure broke, Soon-Shiong went to X to explain that he had offered the editorial board the opportunity to write “a factual analysis of all positive and negative policies from each candidate during their tenure in the House of Representatives.” White and how these policies affected the nation.”
The owner had also asked the editorial board to present their vision of how the policies outlined during the candidates’ campaigns might work in the next four years if they are elected.
“That way, with this clear, nonpartisan side-by-side information, our readers can decide who would be worthy of being President for the next four years,” he wrote.
“Instead of following this path as suggested, the Editorial Board chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision. Please #vote,” added Soon-Shiong.
The newspaper’s apparent lack of editorial independence has turned off readers.
The paper saw an increase in readers canceling their subscriptions to the paper, with 1,793 subscribers citing “editorial content” as the reason for their cancellation, according to reports.
Leaders of the union representing Times journalists posted a message on Thursday, asking readers not to unsubscribe from the paper.
“We know many loyal readers are angry, upset or confused, and some are canceling their subscriptions,” union leaders wrote. “Before you hit the ‘cancel’ button: This subscription provides the salaries of hundreds of journalists in our newsroom.”
The paper’s own reporters were “deeply troubled” by Soon-Shiong’s decision and “pressing for answers,” even as they continued to do their jobs reporting the news, union leaders wrote.
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