Oh, if only we at RedState could cash in when our political predictions turn out to be spot-on.
When the Los Angeles Times, the largest paper in Kamala Harris’ home state of California, announced that they’d make no endorsement in the presidential race this year, some took that as a sign that perhaps more rational heads were prevailing at the paper and there might be a move toward the middle. But we wrote:
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So, what’s going on? Most likely, it has to do with Harris’ attempt to please both sides with respect to Israel and Gaza. [LA Times Owner Patrick] Soon-Shiong’s daughter Nika, who we’ve written about more than a few times here at RedState, is an extreme radical tied to the Democrat Socialists of America and other fringe organizations, and makes her opinions quite public. It’s been alleged over the last four years that Nika Soon-Shiong has both engineered endorsements for her preferred candidates and quashed others, but LA Times representatives told Politico in 2022 that “there was no involvement from Nika Soon-Shiong in the endorsements.” And, Kamala Harris hasn’t done a great enough job appeasing the pro-Hamas wing of the Democrat party, so Nika Soon-Shiong isn’t a fan.
Lo and behold, over the weekend Nika Soon-Shiong told the New York Times that’s exactly what happened:
“Our family made the joint decision not to endorse a Presidential candidate. This was the first and only time I have been involved in the process. As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children.”
She made a point to say this was the first and only time she was involved in an editorial decision, but that assertion doesn’t pass the smell test.
Prior to that statement, Nika had praise for the decision of the “editorial board,” as reflected in this post on X:
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Knowing that the perception of Nika Soon-Shiong dictating editorial decisions has made it difficult for the Times to retain their veteran journalists and editors, Nika’s father quickly attempted to smother her statement:
“Nika speaks in her own personal capacity regarding her opinion, as every community member has the right to do,” the owner said, according to a spokeswoman. “She does not have any role at The L.A. Times, nor does she participate in any decision or discussion with the editorial board, as has been made clear many times.”
He also told the local cable news station that he is an independent and wants to “air all the voices on the opinion side”:
Speaking this week on the cable news outlet Spectrum, which regularly carries Los Angeles Times content, Dr. Soon-Shiong was asked about a possible political motivation. “I want us desperately to air all the voices on the opinion side, on the op-ed side,” he said. He said he did not know whether readers viewed him or his family as ultra-progressive or not. “But I’m an independent.”
In another interview, he said that the non-endorsement was not intended to favor either candidate:
In an interview with one of his own reporters on Friday, Dr. Soon-Shiong said that his stand was not based on any single issue, nor did he intend by withholding an endorsement to favor either Ms. Harris or Mr. Trump. “We should be an organization that stands up and says the facts,” presenting views across the political spectrum, he said. “I think that the country needs that desperately.”
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The problem with what Soon-Shiong says here is that many of his reporters and editors won’t really understand what he’s saying there. The most dogmatic reporters there already believe that they’re standing up and saying the facts, and they believe that people on the right are anti-science, racists, and bigots and that the things they claim are “disinformation” so they are justified in not reporting it or reporting it with extreme bias. The bias comes through even in small ways, such as referring to conservatives with the adjective “far-right” preceding their names and that type of thing.
I know several writers at the L.A. Times and respect their work, even if I disagree with their politics. But I don’t know a single conservative writer there. Our own Andrew Malcolm used to be part of the editorial board there, and Jim Thompson was a cartoonist. Keywords: “used to” and “was.” If Dr. Soon-Shiong wants to be seen more as an independent, he’ll have to hire a more politically diverse crew – which would undoubtedly lead to a larger employee exodus from the paper.
RELATED: Requiem for a Rag: The LA Times Implodes Over the ‘Non-Endorsement’ of Harris
Former LA Times editorial page editor Mariel Garza, who resigned over the issue, said the younger Soon-Shiong’s reasoning was faulty, and that the alleged reason for the “no endorsement” decision wasn’t communicated to her, in a statement to the New York Times:
“If that was the reason that Dr. Soon-Shiong blocked an endorsement of Kamala Harris, it was not communicated to me or the editorial writers. If the family’s goal was to ‘repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children,’ remaining silent did not accomplish that.”
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This latest kerfuffle between senior LA Times staffers and Soon-Shiong has opened up a larger conversation about the role owners should play in the editorial decisions of news organizations. Senior staffers, and even some reporters, have been upset about the alleged role Nika Soon-Shiong plays in the direction of the organization and its political endorsements, and former executive editor Kevin Merida, who Dr. Soon-Shiong brought on after purchasing the paper in 2018, allegedly left after clashing with Soon-Shiong over an unpublished article about one of Soon-Shiong’s acquaintances. Should billionaire owners such as Soon-Shiong or the Washington Post’s Jeff Bezos have the ability to kill factual stories that are critical of their friends or business colleagues? Should they have the ability to torpedo editorial board decisions? That’s a conversation worth having.