According to a new report from former CNN reporter Oliver Darcy, the owner of the Los Angeles Times has ordered his outlet’s editorial board to stop writing about President-elect Donald Trump.
In a recent article, the independent journalist reported on a memo he obtained from Times staff complaining about how Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong directly interfered with the publication of articles critical of Trump, as well as other editorials. decisions.
According to the memo, which was sent to editor-in-chief Terry Tang and signed by several Opinion section staff, Dr. Soon-Shiong asked the editorial board to “take a break from writing about” the president-elect .
Darcy explained that the staff signed the memo because they viewed Dr. Soon-Shiong’s actions as “alarming actions” and noted his commitment to reporting “anything that might cast a shadow on the reputation of The Times.”
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LA Times staff have reportedly expressed concern over their newspaper’s owner, Dr. Soon-Shiong, and his “alarming actions” aimed at making the newspaper’s editorial board less liberal. (Marcus Yam / Contributor)
“We understand that Dr. Soon-Shiong has a role in setting the tone and direction of the editorial board and the Opinion section, but we are still bound by the core values and ethics of journalism , including the duty to be transparent and act in service of the public,” the memo reads.
He adds: “We believe we have an obligation to report them under the ethics policy, which states that ‘the primary goal should always be to protect the integrity of The Times.’
As Darcy wrote, the memo also alleged that Dr. Soon-Shiong had “instituted a new policy prohibiting editorials containing criticism of the president-elect unless they were presented side-by-side with another opinion article representing the “opposing point of view”. “
The report continued: “This new restriction, which appears to apply only to matters involving Trump and not to other officials or issues, has effectively killed or indefinitely delayed several op-eds that were written and edited but remain unpublished. »
The memo also accused the owner of asking the editorial board to send him the text of each editorial and the names of their authors before publication. “The editorial board’s positions and content were preemptively censored before publication, and their arguments, titles, and topics subject to limitations that did not previously exist,” the memo said.
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The report is the latest news on the LA Times owner’s mission to make the paper a “trusted, middle-ground news source,” a mission he made public when he announced in October that the paper’s editorial board would not approve. candidate for the 2024 presidential election.
The denial of approval sparked major backlash, with the paper losing more than 20,000 subscribers. Some journalists and contributors also left the newspaper in response.
Despite the outrage, the owner continued to push for a nonpartisan LA Times. He announced last month that the paper would form a “new editorial board” made up of diverse voices, including conservative CNN political commentator Scott Jennings.
“Trust in the media is essential for a strong democracy,” he wrote on X while touting his ambitions for a new board.
In an interview with Fox News in November, Dr. Soon-Shiong said: “It is our responsibility to maintain democracy, to make known the opinions of all our California readers, in fact, the opinions of all national readers . Because if we only have one side, it becomes nothing more than an echo chamber. »
The LA Times did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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