Los Angeles Times readers are fuming over the paper’s decision to not endorse a presidential candidate this year, with many of them posting on X that they’re canceling their subscriptions over the “deplorable” move.
Semafor reported on Tuesday the LA Times wouldn’t be endorsing either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump for president at the behest of billionaire businessman owner Patrick Soon-Shiong. The editorial board was prepared to endorse Harris and has endorsed the Democratic candidate in each of the past four elections, going back to Barack Obama in 2008.
The decision to abstain from endorsing angered a number of Harris fans who jumped on X to say they were ditching the paper.
“Mrs. Doubtfire” screenwriter Randi Mayem Singer posted she had “just canceled” her subscription over the paper’s non-endorsement. “WTF is wrong with you?” she asked.
Evan Handler, best known for playing Harry on “Sex and the City,” said he was also canceling his subscription. He said he didn’t “need to spend $15.96/month to read only what Patrick Soon-Schiong [sic] allows the paper’s staff to publish.” He also called on others to cancel their subscriptions by sharing the Times’ cancelation email.
Writer Janice Hough responded to Handler, saying it was a “deplorable” move by the Times.
And another longtime Times reader responded to Handler, saying he’d just canceled his subscription. “Now is a time for courage, not cowardice,” he said.
Dina Demetrius, an Emmy-winning reporter who works for CBS, posted it was “unconscionable” for the Times to not endorse Harris.
Sports pundit Jemele Hill said the paper “abandoned” its responsibility to “disrupt and sometimes tell people the uncomfortable truth.”
“Queer as Folk” actor Peter Paige reshared a post calling out Soon-Shiong for being friends with fellow South African billionaire Elon Musk. Paige said he wants to make Soon-Shiong’s decision “a much bigger story” than if the paper had simply endorsed Harris.
You’re getting the idea. But here’s a few more people who were upset at the Times:
The angry ex-LA Times subscribers won’t have to look far for outlets that have endorsed their favorite candidate, at least. The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker, among other newspapers and magazines, have officially backed the vice president.
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