LA Times presidential endorsement decision: owner’s daughter weighs in

the daughter of Los Angeles Times Owner Patrick Soon-Shiong weighs in on the controversy that has arisen over the newspaper’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate in 2024, saying that “to me, genocide is a line in the sand.”

in a thread From social media posts on Friday, Nika Soon-Shiong attributed the decision to opposition to Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ position on the war in Gaza. He wrote that his father, a South African transplant surgeon, had worked as an emergency surgeon at Soweto’s Baragwanath Hospital during apartheid. “For my family, apartheid is not a vague concept.” Maintaining that the decision to support was made by the Los Angeles Times In the editorial board, Nika added: “This is not a vote for Donald Trump. “This is a refusal to ENDORSE a candidate who is overseeing a war on children.”

And she continued: “I am proud of the LA Times’ decision, just as I am sure that there are no children of darkness. “There are no human animals.”

The messages arrive as Times faces an internal and external storm for its decision not to endorse a candidate in the 2024 elections. Three members of the editorial board have resigned since the decision was made public, and one of them, Mariel Garza, said in an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review that owner Soon-Shiong had made clear his desire not to endorse through a message transmitted by Times executive editor Terry Tang. Previously, Garza had been drafting an editorial that would announce the endorsement of Harris, he said.

Semafor has further reported that Soon-Shiong blocked the Times editorial board endorse a candidate even if they were preparing to do so.

While some media outlets have suggested that Soon-Shiong may have pushed for a non-endorsement to curry favor with former President Donald Trump should he be re-elected, two well-placed sources in the Times They suggest the real reason is antipathy toward Harris for her and the Biden administration’s stance on Israel. “Both have been very critical of the administration and its support for Israel, and Nika has been especially vocal about it,” says a source. “She has regularly accused Israel of genocide and condemned the administration for its support. Just look at his Twitter account: he has a Palestinian flag in his bio. Patrick talks less, but agrees with her. “I think there is no doubt that his refusal to endorse Kamala is due to that.”

The Hollywood Reporter has approached the Los Angeles Times to comment.

In July, a Times Caption inserted in a story about a Los Angeles City Council motion to fund additional security for Jewish synagogues and places of worship. sparked outrage from the Jewish community and calls to boycott the newspaper.

The Soon-Shiong family has faced accusations in the past of trying to intervene in the newspaper’s coverage. After executive editor Kevin Merida came out in january THR reported that a recent conflict between Mérida and the Soon-Shiong family occurred when more than three dozen Times The journalists “signed a Nov. 9 statement that severely criticized Israel’s invasion of Gaza, but barely mentioned the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel launched from Hamas-controlled territory.” Under pressure from senior editors, Mérida restricted those who signed the declaration from covering the war in Gaza for 90 days.

Nika has also faced reports that she has influenced the newspaper’s editorial work despite having no official role in the Times. THR has reported that during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, Nika fought with Times leadership over the use of the term “looting” and criticized Times editors on Twitter. political has reported that in 2020 Nika appeared in staff meetings that addressed the question of where the newspaper had gone wrong in covering racial issues and that when she became West Hollywood Public Safety Commissioner, she filed stories about the commission and “complained about the headlines ”.

At that moment, Soon-Shiong said political who served as an advisor to the newspaper but said she did not control editorial decisions or have a “formal role.”