A “combative” interview with Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong was abruptly ended this week when the reporter asked about Soon-Shiong’s decision to name CNN contributor Scott Jennings, a conservative supporter of president-elect Donald Trump, to the paper’s new editorial board.
Oliver Darcy, the founder of subscription-based newsletter Status, wrote that the interview was ended by a Times rep shortly after he questioned the wisdom of appointing Jennings to the editorial board.
“It was when I attempted to broach this topic with Soon-Shiong that our conversation grew combative,” wrote Darcy, per Mediaite. “He told me it was merely my ‘opinion’ that Trump lies more than other politicians. I pushed back, noting that the depths of his dishonesty have been well-documented by fact-based news organizations. Soon-Shiong didn’t apparently appreciate that. He scolded me for making ‘a statement.’”
As the interview went south, Darcy said that Soon-Shiong referred to him as a “so-called reporter,” and bristled at Darcy’s suggestion that he was building an editorial board of “voices that are inherently dishonest.”
Earlier in the conversation, Soon-Shiong told Darcy that the new editorial board would represent “all voices,” and include “some truly critical thinkers” and “thoughtful people” who “voice opinion based on the facts.”
On Tuesday, the Times’ owner welcomed Jennings to the board in a tweet that read, “Growing the board with experts who have thoughtful balanced views and new candidates are accepting the challenge to join us! Way to go Scott and thanks for accepting.”
Darcy wrote that Soon-Shiong “is not the only media boss grappling with the complex question of how to represent the views of Trump voters in the legacy press” and how the“challenge” of “platforming people who, like Trump, abuse the platforms they are given to mislead the greater public.”
Darcy, a former CNN senior reporter, left the network in August to launch Status, which promises to “inform readers about what is really happening in the corridors of media power.”
As TheWrap earlier reported, staffers at the Times are “pissed off” with the news of the new editorial direction of the paper, which follows Soon Shiong’s decision to break with tradition and not publish a planned presidential endorsement ahead of the election.
