The Los Angeles Times has lost two more longtime editorial writers, the latest in a growing exodus to protest owner Patrick Soon-Shiong’s interference with the paper’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris, TheWrap can exclusively report.
On Thursday, editorial writer Karin Klein, and Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Greene both quit; their exits come just one day after Editorial Editor Mariel Garza, who resigned in protest on Wednesday.
Greene has not yet spoken publicly about his exit, but in a statement posted to a private forum that was subsequently shared with TheWrap, Klein laid her reasons for quitting.
Channeling Harris’ campaign slogan “we’re not going back,” Klein called Soon-Shiong a “chickens—” who threw the editorial team “under the bus,” and argued, essentially, that the decision to stop the endorsement was itself an endorsement of sorts for Harris’ opponent, Donald Trump.
Soon-Shiong, Klein wrote, has as owner the “right to interfere with editorials; that is the one place where he can ethically do so.” But, by shooting down this particular editorial, she said he had actually created one of his own. “A wordless one, a make-believe-invisible one that unfairly implies that [Harris] has grievous faults that somehow put her on a level with Donald Trump.”
In fact, she argued, the timing itself can only be seen as a direct attack on the Democratic candidate “that hits just at the time when she cannot afford hits.”
Klein also specifically called out Soon-Shiong’s dissembling statement Wednesday night that attempted to blame the editorial board itself for the debacle, while at the same time effectively confirming he had indeed blocked the endorsement.
On the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Soon-Shiong wrote that “the editorial board was provided the opportunity to draft a factual analysis of all the positive and negative policies by each candidate during their tenures at the White House, and how these policies affected the nation.”
“In addition, the board was asked to provide their understanding of the policies and plans enunciated by the candidates during this campaign and its potential effect on the nation in the next four years. In this way, with this clear and non-partisan information side-by-side, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being president for the next four years.”
“Instead of adopting this path as suggested, the editorial board chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision. Please vote,” Soon-Shiong’s statement concluded.
Immediately after, in a statement provided to TheWrap, Garza said bluntly, “We pitched an endorsement and were not allowed to write one.”
For her part, Klein wrote her decision to quit was made “simple and easy” by Soon-Shiong’s statement, in part because forcing the editorial board to conjure up positive things about Trump “works as well as any other lie designed to make him look like anything better than sludge.”
“The board was not the one choosing to remain silent. He blocked our voice. He can force his decisions down everyone’s throats, but at least OWN it,” she added.
Read Klein’s whole statement below:
“I gave notice at the LA Times today because of the cock-up (very polite term for how fried I feel) about not endorsing Kamala Harris. And I am not going back.”
“I respect the owner’s right to interfere with editorials; that is one place where he ethically can do so. What steams me is that a decision against an editorial at this point is actually a decision to do an editorial — a wordless one, a make-believe-invisible one that unfairly implies that she has grievous faults that somehow put her on a level with Donald Trump. And that hits just at the time when she cannot afford hits. Patrick Soon-Shiong is doing the opposite of the neutrality he said he was seeking. Enough. Done.”
“The decision to resign was made simple and easy when he posted on X yesterday about his suggestion that the board create an analysis of the positives and negatives of each candidate and let the voters make their own decisions. (He did do so, but the editorial writers never heard about it.) And that positive stuff about Trump? ‘Nice hair?’ It works as well as any other lie designed to make him look like anything better than sludge.”
“News side does an excellent job of neutral analysis. That’s not an editorial.”
“Then the owner wrote the infuriating words that ‘the editorial board chose to remain silent.’ Oh, to hell with that chickens— attempt to throw the editorialists under the bus. The board was not the one choosing to remain silent. He blocked our voice. He can force his decisions down everyone’s throats, but at least OWN it.”
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