LA Times editor resigns after newspaper denies presidential endorsement

The headquarters of the Los Angeles Times newspaper is shown in El Segundo, California, on January 23.

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 24 (AP): The editorial editor of the Los Angeles Times resigned after the paper’s owner blocked the editorial board’s plans to support Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president, a journalism trade publication reported Wednesday -fair. Mariel Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review in an interview that she resigned because the Times remained silent about the dispute in “dangerous times.” “I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with silence,” Garza said.

“In dangerous times, honest people need to rise up. That’s how I’m getting up.” In a post on social media platform X that did not directly mention the resignation, LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong said the board was asked to provide a factual analysis of the policies of Harris and former Republican President Donald Trump during his time in government. White House.

Additionally, “the council was asked to provide its understanding of the policies and plans enunciated by the candidates during this campaign and their potential effect on the nation over the next four years,” he wrote. and nonpartisan information side by side, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being president for the next four years.” Soon-Shiong, who purchased the paper in 2018, said the board “chose to remain silent and I accepted the decision.”

Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review that the board intended to endorse Harris and she drafted an editorial proposal. An LA Times spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The LA Times Guild Unit Council and Bargaining Committee said it was “deeply concerned about our owner’s decision to block a planned endorsement in the presidential race.” “We are even more concerned that he is now unfairly assigning blame to the Editorial Board members for his decision not to endorse,” the guild said in a statement. “We are still pressing for answers from newsroom management on behalf of our members.”