As pressure mounted amid revelations that The Los Angeles Times’ billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong blocked an editorial board endorsement for Kamala Harris this week, the newspaper’s guild pled with readers to not cancel their subscriptions.
“Before you hit the ‘cancel’ button: That subscription underwrites the salaries of hundreds of journalists in our newsroom,” the Los Angeles Times Guild Unit Council shared in a statement Thursday. “Our member-journalists work every day to keep readers informed during these tumultuous times. A healthy democracy is an informed democracy.”
The statement came Thursday after TheWrap exclusively reported on the paper’s inner newsroom turmoil over the decision to skip an endorsement ahead of November’s presidential election, which led to the resignation of one of its top editors on Wednesday.
Soon-Shiong denied later that day that he vetoed the board’s endorsement, writing that he gave the Editorial Board a nonpartisan option to preview both Harris and Donald Trump’s policies, and that “instead of adopting this path as suggested, the Editorial Board chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision.”
Read the guild’s Thursday statement below:
“We know many loyal readers are angry, upset, or confused, and some are canceling their subscriptions. Before you hit the ‘cancel’ button: That subscription underwrites the salaries of hundreds of journalists in our newsroom. Our member-journalists work every day to keep readers informed during these tumultuous times. A healthy democracy is an informed democracy.
We remain deeply concerned about The Times’ owner’s decision to block a planned endorsement, and his statement that unfairly shifts blame onto editorial board members. We are pressing for answers.
Meanwhile, our members continue doing their jobs: covering city hall, interviewing sources, investigating local corruption and putting out a newspaper every day.”
A statement from Los Angeles Times Guild leadership: pic.twitter.com/yjp1LkSW55
— L.A. Times Guild 🦅 (@latguild) October 24, 2024
TheWrap exclusively reported Wednesday that Editorial Editor Mariel Garza resigned following the paper’s decision to skip a presidential endorsement ahead of November’s election, detailing in her resignation letter that “ever since Dr. Soon-Shiong vetoed the editorial board’s plan to endorse Kamala Harris for president, I have been struggling with my feelings about the implications of our silence.”
In that same report, TheWrap obtained screenshots from an internal Times Slack channel that highlighted the distress from a number of anonymous newsroom employees.
“I’ve… witnessed the last 10 months of mind-boggling decisions, disrespectful negotiations, and finally, yesterday’s cowardly, unexplained non-endorsement,” one reporter wrote. “I used to be proud that I worked at The Los Angeles Times. Now, I’m just embarrassed.”
Another newsroom employee wrote: “We’ve made ourselves the story and still had an impact, even if the intent was to stay neutral.”
And while that embarrassment appeared to be echoed by various staffers, the hope of the L.A. Times Guild Unit Council is that the paper’s readership will help see them through it.
“We are proud of our members as they do this essential work,” the guild’s statement concluded.
Leave a Reply