The head of the newspaper’s Editorial Board Los Angeles TimesMariel Garza, resigned from his position in protest because the newspaper does not support in this electoral campaign to some of the presidential candidates and specifically to the Democrat, Kamala Harris.
“I resign because I want to make it clear that “I don’t agree with us staying silent.”said Mariel Garza in statements to the Columbia Journalism Review magazine that other media outlets reproduced this Thursday.
According to Garza, the Editorial Board of Los Angeles Times intended to support Harris, because the newspaper’s readers “for the most part” are supporters of the current vice presidentwho on November 5 will face the former Republican president donald trump at the polls.
“In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I stand up,” he said of his resignation. The diary largest circulation in California and one of the most important in the US first endorsed a Democratic candidate for president in 2008, when he leaned toward Barack Obamawho won the elections, and since then there has not been a presidential election in which he has not opted for the nominees of the Democratic Party, despite being born as a half republicannotes Columbia Journalism Review.
“In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I stand up”
However, on October 11, doctor Patrick Soon-Shiong, who bought the newspaper in 2018 for $500 million, told the editorial board that This time they were not going to support anyone for the White House.
“I didn’t think we were going to change the minds of our readers. We are a very liberal newspaper. “I didn’t think we were going to change the outcome of the election in California.”Garza stressed to Columbia Journalism Review.
The journalist stated that supporting Harris was “the next logical step” after a series of editorials that denounced “the dangerous that Trump is for democracyhis inability to be president, his threats to imprison his enemies. “We have argued in editorial after editorial that he should not be re-elected.”
resignation letter
In her resignation letter, published by the magazine, Mariel Garza underlines: “Of course it matters that the largest newspaper in the state, and still one of the largest in the country, has refused to support Kamala Harris in such a race. important. It matters that we are not even honest with people about this“.
“It makes us look like cowards and hypocrites, maybe even a little sexist and racist. How could we spend eight years railing against Trump and the danger that his leadership represents for the country and then not support a perfectly decent Democratic rival, whom we already supported for the US Senate?” he adds.
Upon learning of Soon-Shiong’s decision, Trump himself said that it is a big “blow” for Harriswho is born in California and was the state’s attorney general. “Even Californians know she’s not fit” to be president, he said.
Soon-Shiong wrote in X to clarify what happened: “The editorial board was given the opportunity to write a factual analysis of all the positive and negative policies of each candidate during their terms in the White House, and how these policies affected the nation.
“With this clear and non-partisan information, “Our readers could decide who would be worthy of being president for the next four years,” he wrote.
Garza’s resignation comes a month after the Times will publish the list of candidates for the November elections those he supports, not including the presidential race.
