LA Times owner says Harris’ stance on Gaza war contributed to non-endorsement, plans editorial board revamp
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In the month since Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong announced the newspaper would not endorse a candidate in the presidential election, the Times has been reeling from the decision.
Three members of the paper's editorial board resigned, scores of staffers openly protested, and thousands of readers cancelled their subscriptions as the Times was thrust into an uncomfortable spotlight. The decision, which came after an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris had already been prepared, raised speculation about the rationale behind Soon-Shiong's decision, with the outgoing leader of the paper's editorial board decrying it as "complicity" in "dangerous times."
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Soon-Shiong stated publicly for the first time that Harris' support for Israel's war in Gaza played a role in his decision to block the endorsement and said he plans to "balance" the paper's opinion page with more conservative and centrist voices.
"If we were honest with ourselves, our current board of opinion writers veered very left, which is fine, but I think in order to have balance, you also need to have somebody who would trend right, and more importantly, somebody that would trend in the middle," Soon-Shiong said, adding that he's already spoken to candidates he hopes to add to the Times' editorial roster.
Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump attends a campaign rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, U.S., October 30, 2024.
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On Sunday, Soon-Shiong raised eyebrows with a post on X, stating that he plans to make his newspaper "fair and balanced so that all voices are heard and we can respectfully exchange every American's view … from left to right to the center. Coming soon. A new Editorial Board. Trust in media is critical for a strong democracy."
In the interview, Soon-Shiong said his plan to transform the editorial board is "not as inflammatory as you're firing everybody," but that he is "really trying to identify voices that speak to all the Americans."
The billionaire, who acquired the Times in 2018 for $500 million, also expressed concern about the perception of opinion in news reporting, saying the paper needs "a real rethinking" of how its coverage is structured and suggested that the current designations of the opinion section, columnists and editorials are not clear enough.
"Somebody just picking up the paper, Gen Z today or something, I don't know would recognize that that is an opinion," he said. "This conflation of news and opinion of the news sometimes gets all mixed up, and I think that's part of the problem of why there's a reduction in trust of the press."
Despite blocking this year's endorsement, Soon-Shiong said the newspaper will continue to make political endorsements in the future if "they have the right mix, without real bias and based on facts."
"But I think endorsements should be based on factual analysis and really transparent exposure or the basis of the endorsement, rather than basically what I said before, group think," he added.
People are canceling subscriptions, and some of Washington Post and LA Times staff are speaking out against their employers, over the papers' decision not to endorse a U.S. presidential candidate. Brian Stelter has the details.
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After news of the Times' non-endorsement broke last month, Soon-Shiong's 31-year-olddaughter, Nika, told The New York Times that "our family made the joint decision" over Harris' stance on the war in Gaza. Soon-Shiong later denied in a statement that his daughter had played role in the decision. In an interview with the Times, he also reportedly said "the decision was not tied to the war in Gaza and his daughter's views were ‘her opinion.'"
But, in the interview with CNN, Soon-Shiong confirmed that the war in Gaza played a role in his decision to block the endorsement.
"Somebody had asked me, ‘was that the reason?' I said, ‘well, that wasn't the only reason.' Clearly, that was one of the reasons, and there are many other reasons, but I think that should be exposed really transparently about all the reasons," he said.
Last week, Drop Site News reported that Soon-Shiong, in an email sent to the paper's top executives, also privately cited the war as a reason behind the non-endorsement.
The Times was not alone in announcing an eleventh-hour reversal on its endorsement precedents this election cycle. The Washington Post also did not back a presidential candidate for the first time in decades and said it would no longer do so in future races. As with the Times, the decision was handed down by the publication's billionaire owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, igniting a firestorm of controversy.
Asked about whether the backlash over his decision not to endorse had been a "disaster" for the paper, Soon-Shiong pushed back.
"I don't think of it as a disaster at all, I think of it as [an] inflection point in which the trust in the newspapers has to be restored," he said.
