Two more Los Angeles Times editorial board members resign amid turmoil over blocked Harris endorsement

By Jon Passantino, CNN

(CNN) — Two more members of the Los Angeles Times editorial board resigned Thursday after the newspaper’s owner blocked an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, a contentious decision that has engulfed the publication in turmoil.

Robert Greene, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer, resigned from his position over billionaire Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong’s decision to veto the planned endorsement, he confirmed to CNN. In 2021, Greene won journalism’s most prestigious award for his editorials “on policing, bail reform, prisons and mental health that clearly and holistically examined the Los Angeles criminal justice system.”

In a resignation letter, Greene wrote that he was “deeply disappointed” in the decision to not endorse Harris.

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

Karin Klein, another member of the editorial board, also resigned Thursday in protest. Klein announced her decision in a Facebook post, writing: “I respect the owner’s right to interfere with editorials; that is one place where he ethically can do so.”

“What steams me is that a decision against an editorial at this point is actually a decision to do an editorial – a wordless one, a make-believe-invisible one that unfairly implies that she has grievous faults that somehow put her on a level with Donald Trump,” she added.

The departures come one day after Mariel Garza, the leader of the Times’ editorial board, resigned over Soon-Shiong’s directive not to endorse Harris in the presidential race. Instead of an endorsement, Soon-Shiong said that he had offered the board the option to detail the policy differences between Harris and Trump, sparking criticism from Times staffers and observers. The newspaper has endorsed a candidate in every presidential election since it backed Barack Obama in 2008.

A Los Angeles Times spokesperson did not respond to repeated CNN requests for comment. The newspaper has also not explained to readers why it has not issued an endorsement.

In an interview Thursday evening on Spectrum News 1 SoCal, Soon-Shiong responded to the controversy, saying, “my fear is that if we chose either [candidate] that it would just add to the division.”

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

In her Facebook post, Klein countered Soon-Shiong’s explanation, saying the newspaper’s owner “is doing the opposite of the neutrality he said he was seeking. Enough. Done.”

The Los Angeles Times is California’s most widely circulated newspaper and one of the nation’s largest, with a Sunday print circulation of 1.6 million. Its decision not to endorse a presidential candidate has raised questions about the paper self-censoring its coverage as polls show Trump and Harris in a tight race for the White House.

After Soon-Shiong’s decision was first reported Tuesday, the Trump campaign quickly seized on the news, calling it a “humiliating blow” for Harris that “even her fellow Californians know she’s not up for the job.”

In a resignation letter published by the Columbia Journalism Review, Garza wrote that the decision not to endorse Harris made the newspaper “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. “The non-endorsement undermines the integrity of the editorial board and every single endorsement we make, down to school board races.”

The union representing the Los Angeles Times newsroom acknowledged Thursday that “many loyal readers angry, upset or confused, and some are canceling their subscriptions” over Soon-Shiong’s decision.

“We remain deeply concerned about The Times’s owner’s decision to block a planned endorsement, and his statement that unfairly shifts blame onto editorial board members. We are pressing for answers,” it added.

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