LA Times Editorials Editor Leaves Paper Over Editorial Dispute

The Los Angeles Times headquarters in El Segundo, Calif., on June 7, 2023. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

The editor for the Los Angeles Times editorial section resigned on Wednesday after the newspaper’s owner requested the editorial board to present a side-by-side, factual, and nonpartisan analysis of both presidential candidates.

Editorials editor Mariel Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review’s Sewell Chan in an interview that she quit because the newspaper was remaining silent on the presidential race.

“I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not OK with us being silent,” Garza told Chan. “In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”

On X, Garza reposted the Columbia Journalism Review article along with a message from Chan, the paper’s executive director: “My friend Mariel Garza just resigned as editorials editor of @latimes after the newspaper’s owner blocked the editorial board’s plan to endorse Kamala Harris for president.”

However, L.A. Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong clarified in a post on X that the editorial board was asked to provide a factual analysis of Vice President Kamala Harris’s and former President Donald Trump’s positive and negative policies and their effects during their time in office.

“In addition, the Board was asked to provide their understanding of the policies and plans enunciated by the candidates during this campaign and its potential effect on the nation in the next four years. In this way, with this clear and non-partisan information side-by-side, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being President for the next four years,” Soon-Shiong wrote in an X post on Wednesday.

“Instead of adopting this path as suggested, the Editorial Board chose to remain silent and I accepted their decision.”

Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review that the board had planned to endorse Harris and that she had drafted an outline of the editorial, which was rejected.

The L.A. Times in September published its list of electoral endorsements for the 2024 election. The list stopped short of including presidential candidates.

The paper’s list of endorsements included candidates for the U.S. House and Senate, state Legislature, state attorney general, Los Angeles County Superior Court, Los Angeles Unified School District, Community College District, and Los Angeles City Council, along with endorsements for a number of propositions and measures.

In her resignation letter addressed to L.A. Times editor Terry Tang, Garza wrote, “I’m standing up by stepping down.”

She said that the “non-endorsement undermines the integrity of the editorial board and every single endorsement we make, down to school board races.”

According to the Columbia Journalism Review, Soon-Shiong informed the editorial board on Oct. 11 that the paper would not be making a presidential endorsement this year.

Soon-Shiong purchased the newspaper in 2018.

In response to the news, the Trump campaign described the lack of endorsement as a blow for the Harris campaign, pointing out that the newspaper previously endorsed Harris during the 2014 race for California attorney general and in 2016 for U.S. Senate.

In 2010, the newspaper listed both candidates for state attorney general—Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republic candidate Steve Cooley—on its endorsements page.

The Epoch Times reached out to Garza, Soon-Shiong, and the L.A. Times for comment but received no replies by publication time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.