Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Saturday, October 26th, 2024

Los Angeles Times editorials editor resigns after owner blocks presidential endorsement

Author:     SEWELL CHAN
Source:     Columbia Journalism Review
Publication Date:     OCTOBER 23, 2024
 Link: Los Angeles Times editorials editor resigns after owner blocks presidential endorsement
Stephan:  

Part of what fascists always do in elections is threaten revenge on business owners who oppose them, and fascist Trump is openly doing exactly that.  To their historic shame two billionaires each of whom owns one of the largest and most influential newspapers in the United States, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, frightened that Trump might seek vengeance against their business interests are behaving exactly the way fascists want them to. Neither paper is endorsing a presidential candidate. As a result editors with integrity are resigning. Bravo to them.

Mariel Garza Credit: Columbia Journalism Review

Mariel Garza, the editorials editor of the Los Angeles Times, resigned on Wednesday after the newspaper’s owner 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 okay 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 October 11, Patrick Soon-Shiong, who bought the newspaper for $500 million 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.

“I didn’t think we […]

Read the Full Article