Robert Greene and Karin Klein of Los Angeles Times He joined editorial page editor Mariel Garza on Thursday in leaving the paper following her decision not to support a presidential candidate in the 2024 race.
A Traffic lights the report released Tuesday stated that Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong blocked the newspaper's editorial board from endorsing a candidate midway through preparing the board to approve him.
“I'm resigning because I want to make it clear that I'm not okay with us remaining silent,” Garza said in an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review on Wednesday. “In dangerous times, honest people must stand up. This is how I'm standing.” In addition to being the editorial editor, Garza was a member of the newspaper's editorial board.
Greene was an editorial writer for the Timescovering water, drought, criminal justice reform, policing, mental health and Los Angeles County government. He won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing for his work on the Los Angeles criminal justice system. Klein is an ex Times board member who has written editorials on education, environment, food and science.
Hugo Martin, member of the unitary council of Los Angeles Times guild, said in a statement to The Hollywood journalist that “the latest resignations of talented journalists represent a huge loss for the editorial team and the editorial team in particular” and that “we stand with our colleagues who have been unfairly and unfairly blamed for this decision not to approve”.
Garza's interview with CJR he said that the newspaper's editorial board was ready to endorse Democratic candidate Kamala Harris for president and that he had already begun drafting an editorial announcing the decision. In his interview, Garza admitted he didn't believe the approval would affect it Times readers' voting decisions, given that the Times is a “very liberal newspaper,” but he said the endorsement is important because “this is a time when you speak according to your conscience, no matter what.”
In a message posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday afternoon, Times owner Soon-Shiong said he offered the editorial board the opportunity to write “a factual analysis of all of EACH candidate's POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies during his tenure in the White House, and how those policies have affected the nation” . He had also asked the editorial board to present their vision for how the policies outlined during the candidates' campaigns might play out over the next four years if they were elected. “That way, with this clear and unbiased information, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being president for the next four years,” he wrote.
“Instead of taking this path as suggested, the editorial team chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision. Please #vote,” Soon-Shiong added.
THR reached the Times for comment.