Los Angeles Times editorials editor resigns after owner blocks presidential endorsement [View all]

[Nevilledog]

https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/los-angeles-times-editorials-editor-resigns-after-owner-blocks-presidential-endorsement.php


Mariel Garza, the editorials editor of the Los Angeles Times, resigned on Wednesday after the newspaper’s owner had blocked the editorial board’s plans to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

“I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not OK with us being silent,” Garza told me in a phone conversation. “In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”

On Oct. 11, Patrick Soon-Shiong, who bought the newspaper for $500m in 2018, informed the paper’s editorial board that the Times would not be making an endorsement for president. The message was conveyed to Garza by Terry Tang, the paper’s editor.

The board had intended to endorse Harris, Garza told me, and she had drafted the outline of a proposed editorial. She had hoped to get feedback on the outline and was taken aback upon being told that the newspaper would not take a position.

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