Two more members of the LA Times editorial board resigned after the newspaper withheld Harris’ endorsement

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two more members of the Los Angeles Times editorial board have resigned after the newspaper’s owner blocked the board’s plan to endorse Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

Veteran journalists Robert Greene and Karin Klein announced their resignations Thursday, a day after editorial page editor mariel garza left in protest of LA Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s decision not to endorse a candidate.

Greene, a Pulitzer Prize winner for editorial writing, said in his resignation letter shared with Columbia Journalism Review that he was “deeply disappointed” by the decision not to endorse Harris.

“I recognize that it is the owner’s decision,” he wrote. “But it hurts particularly because one of the candidates, Donald Trump, has demonstrated such hostility toward the principles that are central to journalism: respect for the truth and reverence for democracy.”

Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review who resigned because the Times remained silent about the presidential race in “dangerous times.”

“I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I do not agree with us remaining silent,” Garza said. “In dangerous times, honest people must stand up. “That’s how I stand.”

Garza said the board intended to endorse Harris and that she had drafted a proposed editorial, but Soon-Shiong blocked it.

Soon-Shiong said in a post on social media platform

Soon-Shiong, who bought the newspaper in 2018 and is a member of the editorial board, said the board “chose to remain silent and I accept their decision.”

Greene, who has written about water, drought and Los Angeles County government, among other topics, said she was also concerned about Soon-Shiong’s claim that the editorial board had chosen to remain silent.

Green wrote that the newspaper’s news section would have to conduct policy analysis and that the purpose of an editorial board is to “take a position and defend it persuasively.”

“I left in response to the refusal to take a position and the incorrect assertion that the editorial board had made a decision,” Green wrote.

Klein said in a statement posted on Facebook that his decision to resign also came after seeing Soon-Shiong’s post on X.

“The decision to resign was made simple and easy when he posted yesterday on X his suggestion that the board create an analysis of the positives and negatives of each candidate and let the voters make their own decisions,” he wrote.

“The news side does an excellent job of neutral analysis. “That is not an editorial,” he added.

In an interview with Spectrum News on Thursday, Soon-Shiong rejected criticism that she censored the editorial board.

“As the owner, I’m on the editorial board and I shared with our editors that maybe this year we’ll have a column, a page, two pages, if we want, of all the pros and all the cons and let the readers decide. ”Soon-Shiong said.

He said he feared that endorsing a candidate would increase the country’s division.

“I desperately want us to air all the voices on the opinion side, on the op-ed side,” Soon-Shiong said. “I don’t know how (readers) see me or our family as ‘ultra progressive’ or not, but I’m independent.”