LA Times owner’s daughter reveals why paper refused to endorse Harris

The daughter of the owner of the Los Angeles Times has revealed why the newspaper refused to endorse Kamala Harris.

Nika Soon-Shiong, 31, a far-left political activist who displays a Palestinian flag on her X profile, is said to have blocked her father Patrick Soon-Shiong’s newspaper from endorsing Harris as a way of protesting her support of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Although the younger Soon-Shiong has no formal role at the paper, she has previously been accused of having undue influence at the publication.  

‘There is a lot of controversy and confusion over the LAT’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate. I trust the Editorial Board’s judgment. For me, genocide is the line in the sand,’ Nika wrote in a post on X.

The L.A. Times has decided not to endorse either candidate running for president 

‘This is not a vote for Donald Trump. This is a refusal to ENDORSE a candidate that is overseeing a war on children. I’m proud of the LA Times’ decision just as I am certain there is no such thing as children of darkness. There is no such thing as human animals.’

A community note was added to Nika’s tweet with a suggested correction of her claims.

‘The LA Times editorial board did not make this decision. The board voted to make an endorsement and were overruled by the owner, who is the poster’s father. There is no evidence that his decision was even partly based on the Gaza conflict,’ the note read.

Later on Saturday, her father made a formal statement to The New York Times where she further qualified her comments. 

‘Our family made the joint decision not to endorse a Presidential candidate. This was the first and only time I have been involved in the process,’ Dr. Soon-Shiong said.

‘As a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children.’

LA Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong made the decision not to issue endorsements for this year’s presidential election

Soon-Shiong broke his silence on the issue in a social media post on Wednesday night

Despite his daughter’s comments, in an interview with his own newspaper, Dr. Soon-Shiong was far more circumspect and said the decision was not as a result of any single issue – and that his daughter had nothing to do with the paper.

‘The process was [to decide]: how do we actually best inform our readers? And there could be nobody better than us who try to sift the facts from fiction’ while leaving it to readers to make their own final decision, he told the Los Angeles Times.

‘Nika speaks in her own personal capacity regarding her opinion, as every community member has the right to do,’ the owner said.

‘She does not have any role at The LA Times, nor does she participate in any decision or discussion with the editorial board, as has been made clear many times.’ 

The shock announcement led to the resignation of Mariel Garza – the paper’s editorials editor – who says it was a red line for her and a sign that she needed to leave. 

The editorial editor of the LA Times Mariel Garza has stepped down after the billionaire owner reportedly blocked its editorial board from endorsing Kamala Harris for president

‘I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent. In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up,’ she said. 

‘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,’ Garza said.  

Two other members of the LA Times editorial board, veteran journalists Robert Greene and Karin Klein, also resigned following the decision.

Greene, a Pulitzer Prize winner for editorial writing, said in a statement shared with the Columbia Journalism Review that he was ‘deeply disappointed’ in the decision not to endorse Harris. 

‘I recognize that it is the owner´s decision to make,’ he wrote. ‘But it hurt particularly because one of the candidates, Donald Trump, has demonstrated such hostility to principles that are central to journalism – respect for the truth and reverence for democracy.’

Editorial writer Tony Barboza, who remains on the editorial board, said in a post Friday on an internal Los Angeles Times message board that the board had planned a series of editorials that would have culminated on Sunday with a Harris endorsement.

‘All of it was killed,’ he wrote. ‘I am deeply disturbed to see these facts mischaracterized, and the owner’s decision not to endorse in this consequential race blamed on his employees.’

The Los Angeles Times has exclusively endorsed Democratic presidential candidates since then-Senator Barack Obama ran in 2008

LA Times editors were asked to fairly analyze both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, but chose to say nothing instead, according to the paper’s owner Dr Pat Soon-Shiong

The paper’s decision marks a major departure for Harris’ home state newspaper, which has exclusively endorsed Democratic presidential candidates since then-Senator Barack Obama ran in 2008.

In 2020, Dr. Soon-Shiong decided to again overrule the editorial board after it planned to endorse Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic primary.

It would later endorse Biden for president over Trump.  

Only days after this latest decision, it was revealed how the billionaire owner of Amazon and the Washington Post withheld that paper’s planned endorsement of Harris.

The decision was immediately condemned by a former executive editor but one that the current publisher insisted was ‘consistent with the values the Post has always stood for.’

In an article posted on the front of its website, the Washington Post – reporting on its own inner workings – also quoted unidentified sources within the publication as saying that an endorsement of Harris over Trump had been written but not published. 

Those sources told the Post reporters that Amazon billionaire and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos made the decision.

Those sources told the Post reporters that Amazon billionaire and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos made the decision

The paper’s page editor David Shipley had already approved an endorsement of Harris

The Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, wrote in a column that the decision was actually a return to a tradition the paper had years ago of not endorsing candidates.

He said it reflected the paper’s faith in ‘our readers’ ability to make up their own minds.’

‘We recognize that this will be read in a range of ways, including as a tacit endorsement of one candidate, or as a condemnation of another, or as an abdication of responsibility. That is inevitable,’ Lewis wrote. 

‘We don’t see it that way. We see it as consistent with the values the Post has always stood for and what we hope for in a leader: character and courage in service to the American ethic, veneration for the rule of law, and respect for human freedom in all its aspects.’

The Post said the decision had ‘roiled’ many on the opinion staff, which operates independently from the Post’s newsroom staff – what is known commonly in the industry as a ‘church-state separation’ between those who report the news and those who write opinion.

Columnist Robert Kagan, a conservative Trump critic, resigned from his position in the editorial board after the decision emerged.

The response from the Post’s staff has been ‘uniformly outraged,’  according to NPR’s David Folkenflik.

The Washington Post Guild issued a statement denouncing the move.

‘We are deeply concerned that The Washington Post would make the decision to no longer endorse presidential candidates, especially a mere 11 days ahead of an immensely consequential election,’ it read.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the famous Washington Post reporters who uncovered Watergate, slammed the paper’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate

‘We respect the traditional independence of the editorial page, but this decision 11 days out from the 2024 presidential election ignores the Washington Post’s own overwhelming reportorial evidence on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy,’ Woodward and Bernstein wrote in a statement

The two infamous Washington Post reporters who uncovered Watergate also slammed the paper’s decision not to endorse a candidate. 

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein released a joint statement to CNN in which they expressed their disappointment in the Post’s decision. 

It said: ‘We respect the traditional independence of the editorial page, but this decision 11 days out from the 2024 presidential election ignores the Washington Post’s own overwhelming reportorial evidence on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy.

‘Under Jeff Bezos’s ownership, the Washington Post’s news operation has used its abundant resources to rigorously investigate the danger and damage a second Trump presidency could cause to the future of American democracy.

‘That makes this decision even more surprising and disappointing, especially this late in the electoral process.’

Woodward and Bernstein became legends in the world of journalism after they broke Watergate – a sordid political scandal that involved the Nixon administration and his re-election campaign. 

Thanks to the pair’s investigative reporting, the true extent of Watergate was uncovered, and Nixon was ultimately forced to resign from office. 

Woodward and Bernstein became legends in the world of journalism after they exposed Watergate – a sordid political scandal that involved the Nixon administration and his re-election campaign

The Washington Post has announced it will not endorse a presidential candidate, sparking fury among its liberal readers who are pledging to cancel their subscriptions to the paper

Woodward and Bernstein aren’t the only ones who are frustrated with the Post’s decision, though. 

Many of the outlet’s liberal readers are now pledging to cancel their subscriptions.

The paper’s page editor David Shipley had already approved an endorsement of Harris and had reportedly told colleagues that it was being reviewed by the paper’s owner Jeff Bezos, according to NPR. 

But on Friday CEO Will Lewis published an op-ed that the paper is returning to its ‘roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.’

Columnist Robert Kagan, a conservative Trump critic, resigned from his position in the editorial board after the decision emerged

The paper’s staff learned of the decision from page editor Shipley in a ‘tense’ meeting on Friday, according to NPR. 

Shipley told staff he owned the decision and it was meant to create ‘independent space’ where the paper does not tell people how to vote. 

However, The Post itself has reported that it was Bezos who made the decision to not endorse a presidential candidate.

‘The role of an Editorial Board is to do just this: to share opinions on the news impacting our society and culture and endorse candidates to help guide readers… The message from our chief executive, Will Lewis — not from the Editorial Board itself — makes us concerned that management interfered with the work of our members in Editorial

‘According to our own reporters and Guild members, an endorsement for Harris was already drafted, and the decision to not to publish was made by The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos.

‘We are already seeing cancellations from once loyal readers. This decision undercuts the work of our members at a time when we should be building our readers’ trust, not losing it.’

Former Post executive editor Martin Baron said: ‘This is cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty. Donald Trump will celebrate this as an invitation to further intimidate The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos (and other media owners). 

‘History will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.’