LA Times Dealing with Fallout of Presidential Endorsement Controversy as Employees Quit in a Huff
One Los Angeles Times editor and one former editorial board member, who was still a columnist with the paper, announced their departure in protest over the outlet’s decision not to endorse Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
And an additional columnist for the paper is reportedly out, as well.
A Tuesday report from Semafor said that the owner of the Los Angeles Times, “the largest metropolitan newspaper in the U.S.,” blocked the editorial board from continuing its string of Democratic presidential endorsements that dates back to former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.
Mariel Garza, the now former editorials editor of the Times, told the Columbia Journalism Review that she resigned because the news outlet was remaining silent on the presidential contest between Republican Donald Trump and Harris 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.”
Meanwhile, former board member Karin Klein, who wrote editorials about education, environment, food and science, indicated that she is leaving the paper, too, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Further, Robert Greene, an editorial writer for the Times, covering water, drought, and criminal justice reform, among other issues, said he is departing, as well.
Hugo Martin, a member of the unit council for the Times guild, responded in a statement to the Reporter, writing, that “the latest resignations of talented journalists is a huge 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 this decision not to endorse.”
Garza said in her interview with the Columbia Journalism Review that the paper’s editorial board had started writing an outline for its endorsement of Harris for president and was surprised to learn of the executive decision that the Times would not be choosing a candidate in the presidential contest.
She acknowledged the Times is “very liberal” and didn’t think the board’s endorsement would change its readers’ minds.
“But two things concern me: This is a point in time where you speak your conscience no matter what. And an endorsement was the logical next step after a series of editorials we’ve been writing about how dangerous Trump is to democracy, about his unfitness to be president, about his threats to jail his enemies. We have made the case in editorial after editorial that he shouldn’t be re-elected,” Garza recounted.
The endorsement of Harris would have been the “logical next step.”
Times owner Dr. Pat Soon-Shiong explained his decision regarding a presidential endorsement in a Wednesday post on X, writing, “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,” he continued.
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…
— Dr. Pat Soon-Shiong (@DrPatSoonShiong) October 23, 2024
“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,” Soon-Shiong concluded.
The owner also posted a screenshot on Friday of a headline reporting that the left-leaning Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will also not be endorsing for president this election cycle either.
— Dr. Pat Soon-Shiong (@DrPatSoonShiong) October 25, 2024
Semafor pointed out that the Times declined to endorse for president from the mid-1970s to 2008, and prior to that had nearly a century-long streak of endorsing Republican presidential candidates.
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