Top LA Times Editor Rage Quits Job After Paper’s Owner Refuses To Endorse Kamala

The top opinion page editor of the ultra-liberal Los Angeles Times has stepped down in response to what she claims is a pressure campaign from the paper’s owner to stay out of the presidential race.

Earlier this week, the paper of record for the nation’s second-largest city announced it would not be endorsing either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump for president, breaking with a longstanding tradition of weighing in about whom editors think readers should vote into the White House. On Thursday Mariel Garza, the editorials editor for the L.A. Times, resigned while lambasting owner Patrick Soon-Shiong for what she claimed was a refusal to allow her to endorse Harris. “I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent,” Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review. “In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”

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According to Garza, she and other editors had drafted an editorial endorsing Harris for president which Soon-Shiong ordered them to mothball. Soon-Shiong, who purchased the paper for $500 million in 2018, conveyed the message to Garza through editor Terry Tang. “I didn’t think we were going to change our readers’ minds—our readers, for the most part, are Harris supporters,” Garza explained. “We’re a very liberal paper. I didn’t think we were going to change the outcome of the election in California.

“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 reelected.” Asked why an endorsement was needed when the paper’s support of Harris is so obvious, Garza explained, “It was a logical next step, and it’s perplexing to readers, and possibly suspicious, that we didn’t endorse her this time.”

Hours after Semafor first reported on the lack of endorsement, the Trump campaign pounced, calling the incident “the latest blow” for Harris. “In Kamala’s own home state, the Los Angeles Times—the state’s largest newspaper—has declined to endorse the Harris-Walz ticket, despite endorsing the Democrat nominees in every election for decades,” the campaign said. “Even her fellow Californians know she’s not up for the job. The Times previously endorsed Kamala in her 2010 and 2014 races for California attorney general, as well as her 2016 race for US Senate—but not this time.”

Soon-Shiong, whose family rescued the paper from looming bankruptcy with his purchase, is known among colleagues as a thoughtful owner who rarely becomes involved in editorial decision-making. However, this time Soon-Shiong felt it was important that the editorial board clearly lay out specific policies that Harris supports which would be better for the country if editors chose to endorse her, he explained on X, adding they failed the test.

“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 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. Instead of adopting this path as suggested, the Editorial Board chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision. Please #vote,” he wrote.

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

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