The head of the Los Angeles Times editorial board quit after the paper did not endorse Kamala Harris for president.
Endorsement plans were reportedly blocked by LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong.
“I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent,” editorial editor Mariel Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review. “In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”
“But two things concern me: This is a point in time where you speak your conscience no matter what. And an endorsement was the logical next step after a series of editorials we’ve been writing about how dangerous Trump is to democracy, about his unfitness to be president, about his threats to jail his enemies,” she added. “We have made the case in editorial after editorial that he shouldn’t be reelected.”
In her resignation letter, Garza wrote, “Of course it matters that the largest newspaper in the state—and one of the largest in the nation still—declined to endorse in a race this important. And it matters that we won’t even be straight with people about it.” The letter added, “The non-endorsement undermines the integrity of the editorial board and every single endorsement we make, down to school board races. People will justifiably wonder if each endorsement was a decision made by a group of journalists after extensive research and discussion, or through decree by the owner.”
“In these dangerous times, staying silent isn’t just indifference, it is complicity. I’m standing up by stepping down from the editorial board. Please accept this as my formal resignation, effective immediately,” the letter concluded.
Soon-Shiong explained why the paper did not make a presidential endorsement, saying 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,” he wrote.
