L.A. Times Editorial Chief Resigns After Harris Endorsement is Blocked By Owner
The head of the Los Angeles Times editorial department has resigned after the owner of the paper blocked the endorsement by the editorial board of Kamala Harris for President.
Billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who purchased the newspaper in 2018, instructed the editorial department to not endorse either presidential candidate, despite the decision of the board to endorse the vice president.
Editor Mariel Garza called the move "perplexing to readers, and possibly suspicious" that the paper, the largest in the state of California and one of the largest in the nation would choose not to make a presidential endorsement, despite endorsing in every presidential race since Barack Obama in 2008, and prior in every race from 1881 to 1972.
Soon-Schiong donated to Mike Pence's campaign in 2023 according to the FEC.
The decision of the L.A. Times to not endorse, despite being known as a liberal paper, was spun by Republicans as a condemnation of Harris, with the Trump campaign calling it a "humiliating blow."
"I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent,” Mariel Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review in an interview. "In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up."
"I told myself that presidential endorsements don’t really matter; that California was not ever going to vote for Trump," Garza continued. "But the reality hit me like cold water Tuesday when the news rippled out about the decision not to endorse without so much as a comment from the LAT management, and Donald Trump turned it into an anti-Harris rip."
"In these dangerous times, staying silent isn’t just indifference, it is complicity," Garza added. "I’m standing up by stepping down from the editorial board. Please accept this as my formal resignation, effective immediately."
