LA Times editor resigns over the paper not endorsing Harris for president: 'Not okay with us being silent'

Los Angeles Times editorials editor Mariel Garza resigned from the paper Wednesday over what she alleges was the owner's decision to not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.

"I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent," Garza told Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) on Wednesday. "In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up."

Semafor reported Tuesday that the L.A. Times would not be endorsing any presidential candidate this year despite doing so since backing former President Obama in 2008. The article said the decision came from the paper’s owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who took over in 2018. 

Garza told CJR that she had already begun drafting the paper’s editorial in support of Harris only to be told by her editor there would be no presidential endorsement this time.

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Garza called the idea of not endorsing a candidate "perplexing" and potentially "suspicious" for readers.

"I didn’t think we were going to change our readers’ minds—our readers, for the most part, are Harris supporters," she said. "We’re a very liberal paper. I didn’t think we were going to change the outcome of the election in California."

She added, "But two things concern me: 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. We have made the case in editorial after editorial that he shouldn’t be reelected."

In her letter of resignation to editor Terry Tang, Garza wrote she was "struggling" with the "implications" of the paper staying silent on the presidential race.

"It makes us look craven and hypocritical, maybe even a bit sexist and racist. How could we spend eight years railing against Trump and the danger his leadership poses to the country and then fail to endorse the perfectly decent Democrat challenger—who we previously endorsed for the US Senate?" she wrote.

She continued, "The non-endorsement undermines the integrity of the editorial board and every single endorsement we make, down to school board races. People will justifiably wonder if each endorsement was a decision made by a group of journalists after extensive research and discussion, or through decree by the owner."

Though Garza and others blamed Soon-Shiong for the paper's non-endorsement decision, the owner wrote on X that the decision came from the Editorial Board.

"So many comments about the @latimes Editorial Board not providing a Presidential endorsement this year. Let me clarify how this decision came about," Soon-Shiong wrote.

He continued, "The Editorial Board was provided the opportunity to draft a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH candidate during their tenures at the White House, and how these policies affected the nation. In addition, the Board was asked to provide their understanding of the policies and plans enunciated by the candidates during this campaign and its potential effect on the nation in the next four years. In this way, with this clear and non-partisan information side-by-side, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being President for the next four years."

"Instead of adopting this path as suggested, the Editorial Board chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision. Please #vote," the message concluded.

The Los Angeles Times Guild Unit Council and Bargaining Committee posted a statement in response to Soon-Shiong:

"We are 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 Editorial Board members for his decision not to endorse. We are still pressing for answers from newsroom management on behalf of our members. The Los Angeles Times Guild stands with our members who have always worked diligently to protect the integrity of our newsroom."

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Former L.A. Times editorial editor Sewell Chan, who wrote the piece for the Columbia Journalism Review, also suggested ongoing tension in the paper under Soon-Shiong's leadership.

"I was the newspaper’s editorial page editor in 2020 and 2021, and presided over the board’s endorsement of Joe Biden in 2020. Months earlier, before I took the job, Soon-Shiong had stopped the editorial board from making an endorsement in the Democratic presidential primary. (The board wanted to support Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.) Internal tension over that decision played a role in the departure of my predecessor, Nicholas Goldberg," Chan wrote.

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The L.A. Times editorial board issued presidential endorsements from the 1880s through 1972, only returning to the practice to endorse Obama in 2008. Since then, they have exclusively endorsed Democratic presidential candidates.

The Times released its statewide and nationwide endorsements last week, including Democratic candidates for the U.S. House and Senate.

Fox News Digital reached out to the L.A. Times for a statement.