Two more LA Times editorial board members resign after the paper refuses to endorse Harris

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

Veteran journalists Robert Greene and Karin Klein announced their resignations on Thursday, a day after the editorial page was written Mariel Garza in protest against the decision of LA Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong not to support a candidate.

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

“I understand it is the owner’s decision,” he wrote. “But it hurt especially because one of the candidates, Donald Trump, has shown such hostility to principles that are central to journalism — respect for truth and reverence for democracy.”

Garza told this Columbia Journalism Review that she resigned because the Times remained silent on the presidential race during “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. So I get up.”

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

An LA Times spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

An editorial board operates separately from the newsroom, and its writers' job is to present an issue and then take sides and present arguments in its defense.

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

“Everything was killed,” he wrote. “I am deeply disturbed that these facts are being misrepresented and that the owner’s decision not to participate in this momentous race is being attributed to his employees.”

Soon-Shiong said in a post on the social media platform X that the board had been asked to conduct a factual analysis of the policies of Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump during their time in the White House.

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

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

Greene wrote that the newspaper's news side must conduct political 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 false claim that the editorial board had made a decision,” Greene wrote.

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

“The decision to resign was made easy for him when he stepped up yesterday

“The news site does an excellent job of providing neutral analysis. This is not an editorial,” she added.

In an interview with Spectrum News on Thursday, Soon-Shiong pushed back against criticism that he is censoring the editorial team.

“As an owner, I am a member of the editorial board and I have communicated to our editors that this year we may have a column, a page, two pages if we want, with all the pros and cons and let the readers decide,” Soon said -Shiong.

He said he feared supporting one candidate would increase division in the country.

“I really want us to express all the voices of the opinion page and the commentators,” Soon-Shiong said. “I don't know how (readers) view me or our family as 'ultraprogressive' or not, but I am independent.”